US declares BLA 'specially designated global terrorists'

WASHINGTON: The State Department on Tuesday designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

BLA is an armed separatist group that targets Pakistani security forces and civilians. The group has carried out several terrorist attacks in the past year, including a suicide attack in August 2018 that targeted Chinese engineers in Balochistan, a November 2018 attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, and a May 2019 attack against a luxury hotel in Gwadar, Balochistan.

The state department said that the said action is taken to deny BLA the ‘resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks’. Additionally, the Department of State has amended the terrorist designations of Jundallah to reflect the group’s new primary name Jaysh al-Adl and associated aliases.

The Department has also reviewed and maintained the FTO designation of Jundallah. “All of their property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them,” said the statement.