The recent attack on a train in Quetta has once again brought into focus a question that should not really require much debate. The Baluchistan Liberation Army, or BLA, is a terrorist organisation and ought to be treated as one.
The train attack was not some isolated eruption of violence. It was part of a pattern that has become all too familiar. Over the years, the BLA has attacked railway stations, passenger buses, universities, diplomatic facilities, economic institutions, foreign nationals and ordinary civilians. The victims have included labourers, teachers, students, travellers and workers whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There is another aspect of the BLA’s violence that deserves attention. Many of its victims have been selected not for what they did but for who they were.
The attack on the Jaffer Express, in the recent past, demonstrated the scale of the threat. Civilians and security personnel lost their lives, while hundreds of passengers were taken hostage. It was a shocking incident, but not an unprecedented one. The organisation’s history is littered with similar acts of violence.
In November 2024, a suicide bomber struck a crowded railway station in Quetta, killing at least twenty-six people and injuring more than sixty others. Among the dead were railway employees, soldiers and ordinary passengers. A railway station is not a battlefield. It is a public place where people wait for trains, say goodbye to loved ones, and begin their journeys. The attack was intended to spread fear far beyond the immediate victims.
Only a few weeks earlier, the BLA had targeted a convoy carrying Chinese personnel near Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport. Two Chinese nationals were killed, and several others were injured. The message was unmistakable. The organisation wanted to discourage foreign investment and signal that even heavily protected targets were not beyond its reach.
Then came the coordinated attacks of August 2024. Across Baluchistan, militants struck highways, railway infrastructure, police stations and security installations. More than seventy people were killed over the course of two days. Roads were blocked, vehicles were set ablaze, and public infrastructure was damaged. The attacks disrupted daily life across large parts of the province.
There is another aspect of the BLA’s violence that deserves attention. Many of its victims have been selected not for what they did but for who they were.
In May 2024, gunmen entered a barbershop in Gwadar and murdered seven workers because they were not Baloch. A month earlier, militants stopped a passenger bus in Nushki, checked the identities of the passengers and killed nine men after determining that they were Punjabis. These incidents were not attacks on state institutions or security forces. They were killings based on ethnicity.
The BLA has also waged a sustained campaign against Chinese interests in Pakistan. In March 2024, militants attacked the Gwadar Port Authority complex. In April 2022, a female suicide bomber targeted Chinese teachers at Karachi University, killing three academics and their Pakistani driver. In 2018, militants attempted to storm the Chinese Consulate in Karachi. Although they failed to breach the compound, the attack underlined the organisation’s determination to target Pakistan’s strategic partnership with China.
The organisation’s operations have extended well beyond Baluchistan. In July 2020, armed militants attacked the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi. Their target was not merely a building. It was one of the country’s most important economic institutions. The attack was foiled by security personnel, but the intention was clear enough.
Given this record, it is hardly surprising that the BLA has been designated a terrorist organisation by several countries. Pakistan outlawed the group in 2006. China has condemned its attacks, particularly those directed against Chinese citizens and projects associated with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Iran, too, has viewed militant violence linked to the group as a regional security concern.
What is particularly noteworthy is that the American position today is not very different from Pakistan’s. The United States designated the BLA as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity in 2019. In August 2025, Washington took a further step by designating both the BLA and its Majeed Brigade faction as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The timing was significant. The designation came after years of attacks against civilians, security personnel and foreign nationals, and at a time when the BLA had intensified its activities. American officials noted that the organisation had carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Pakistan and expressed the hope that the designation would further restrict its ability to operate. The statement also stressed the need to hold accountable not only those who carry out terrorist attacks but also those who organise, finance, facilitate or sponsor them.
The importance of these developments should not be overlooked. Pakistan, China, Iran and the United States differ on many international issues. Yet all have arrived at essentially the same conclusion regarding the BLA.
The writer is a lawyer.