ISLAMABAD AP - The United States has designated a Baloch separatist group as a foreign terrorist organization, the State Department said, a move hailed Tuesday by Pakistani officials.
The designation of the Balochistan Liberation Army and its fighting wing, the Majeed Brigade, blamed for deadly attacks in insurgency-hit Balochistan province, coincides with the visit of Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to the U.S.
It also comes less than two weeks after Washington and Islamabad reached a trade agreement expected to allow American firms to help develop Pakistan's largely untapped oil reserves in resource-rich Balochistan and to lower trade tariffs for Islamabad.
In a statement, the State Department said it is "designating the Balochistan Liberation Army BLA and its alias, the Majeed Brigade, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization FTO, and adding the Majeed Brigade as an alias to BLA's previous Specially Designated Global Terrorist SDGT designation."
The BLA was first designated an SDGT in 2019 after several terrorist attacks. The U.S. statement said that, since then, both the group and the Majeed Brigade have claimed responsibility for additional attacks.