BLA rejects US ‘terrorist’ label, calls it endorsement of Pakistan’s ‘colonial narrative’

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) has dismissed Washington’s decision to designate the group, along with its special unit, the Majeed Brigade, as a foreign terrorist organisation, accusing the United States of aligning with Islamabad’s “colonial narrative” against the Baloch struggle.

In a statement issued Friday, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch said the separatist group had anticipated such a move and was “neither surprised nor pressured” by it. He asserted that the BLA functions as “a resistance force operating solely against the military domination of the occupying state” and remains committed to the liberation of what it calls its “occupied motherland.”

The spokesperson reiterated the group’s longstanding claim that Pakistan forcibly occupied Balochistan in 1948, portraying the BLA as “the armed embodiment of Baloch national pride” and rejecting the need for “external validation or any international certification” to justify its cause.

According to the statement, the group’s operations target only “the Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps, intelligence networks, so-called death squads, and their collaborator gangs” inside Balochistan. “We are not opposed to the people of Pakistan, nor to any world power -- our arms are raised solely against the occupier Pakistan Armed Forces until the occupation ends,” Jeeyand Baloch said.

The BLA further pledged it would not back down from its “ideological, military or revolutionary responsibilities,” dismissing the US designation as an international label that would have no impact on its campaign. “We will continue our armed struggle until Baloch national liberation and sovereignty are achieved,” the statement concluded.

The BLA emerged in the early 2000s, as an ideological successor to the Independent Balochistan Movement of 1973 to 1977. Balochistan has witnessed at least five separatist uprisings since Pakistan’s formation in 1947. The Baloch are a Sunni Muslim ethnic group who live on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border, and also in parts of southern Afghanistan.

Analysts studying Baloch resistance movements say it was led by Balach Marri, son of veteran Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri.

However, the rebellion intensified in 2006 after the Pakistan government, under military ruler Pervez Musharraf, killed prominent Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

The BLA’s funding sources remain unclear. However, according to Al Jazeera, analysts suggest multiple revenue streams, including illicit activities such as extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking.

The group has been responsible for numerous attacks on Pakistani security forces, government installations and Chinese-backed projects.