US boldly bans BLA

Sultan M Hali

ONLY three days after a private aircraft surreptitiously flew pro-Balochistan liberation banners over the Pakistan-Afghanistan World Cup Cricket match at Headingley resulting in clashes between Afghan and Pakistani fans, the US State Department has designated Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) as a terror organization. The US has blamed BLA for attacks on Chinese assets amid ongoing insurgency by extremist elements in Balochistan, Pakistan’s biggest province. “The Department of State has designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Hizballah operative Husain Ali Hazzima as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under Executive Order (EO) 13224,” according to a State Department notification issued on 02 July 2019. “BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan. BLA has carried out several terrorist attacks in the past year, including a suicide attack in August 2018 targeted Chinese engineers in Baluchistan, a November 2018 attack on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi and a May 2019 attack against a luxury hotel in Gwadar, Balochistan,” stated the State Department.
The State Department said it was classifying the Balochistan Liberation Army as a global terrorist group, making it a crime for anyone in the United States to assist the militants and freezing any US assets they may have. Pakistan has been fighting insurgents in the south-western region since 2004, with the militants recently finding a new focus in rallying against China’s investment that is part of its major Belt and Road Initiative. The State Department further said that Jundallah, which was designated as an FTO and SDGT in 2010, began using the new name Jaish al-Adl and associated aliases in 2012. Since its inception, the group has engaged in numerous attacks that have killed scores of Iranian civilians and government officials, including a February 2019 suicide bombing and the October 2018 kidnapping of Iranian security personnel. The BLA has targeted Chinese in Pakistan multiple times, including a brazen daylight attack on the Chinese Consulate in Karachi which killed four people in November. In May, five people including a soldier were killed after gunmen stormed the only five-star hotel in Gwadar, the port city which Pakistan is hoping to develop into a major commercial hub.
Claiming responsibility for the hotel attack, the BLA warned China to stop its “exploitative projects in Balochistan” and not to support the “genocide of Baloch people,” threatening further attacks. The US designation of the group comes despite vocal concerns by Washington over the Belt and Road Initiative, with Washington accusing China of imposing debt traps on developing nations. It is no coincidence that the foreign soil has been used to stoke insurgency and Pakistan as well as mar Pak-Afghan ties. Clashes erupted between fans of the Afghanistan and Pakistan cricket teams during the 2019 World Cup match between the two sides in Leeds on 29 June 2019. While videos kept surfacing on Twitter of clashes between the two sets of fans outside the stadium throughout the first half of the game, media reports from the spot said that fans had to be evicted from the Headingley Cricket Ground. Those evicted reportedly continued the melee outside the stadium and a few journalists who were trying to film the scenes were also allegedly harmed. “Supporters of Afghanistan cricket team go violent outside the Headingley cricket stadium, attempt to break down security gate, throw bottles at the security team manning gates, police makes two arrests for violent actions,” said a tweet by a Pakistani reporter in Headingley.
Among the videos on Twitter is one in which show what look like Afghanistan fans beating up a spectator wearing a Pakistan jersey while another shows another set of fans clashing with security personnel. Most tweets from the ground also implicate the Afghanistan fans of causing the ruckus. Additionally, there were also videos of two aeroplane banner messages. While one said, “Help end disappearances in Pakistan,” the other said “Justice for Baluchistan.” Pakistan has made serious attempts to bring the Taliban to the negotiations table both with the US and with the Afghan Government. The recent visit by Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani to Islamabad was a welcome change amidst past anti-Pakistan rhetoric.
Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to visit the US on a formal visit on 20 July. The US act of banning BLA is a welcome step and is being viewed as an icebreaker in the expected talks between US President Donald Trump and Imran Khan. In the past, Trump had denigrated Pakistan for alleged support of Taliban and not doing enough in the war on terror. President Trump accused Pakistan of giving it “nothing but lies and deceit” and suspended security and financial assistance. A war of words had erupted between the two leaders on Twitter but now the ice seems to be melting. This would be the first high-level engagement between the two countries under the Trump Administration tenure and comes at a time when talks between the US and Afghan Taliban have entered a decisive phase. The spokesperson for BLA has taken to social media expressing surprise and shock at the US ban. Observers in Pakistan view the bold step taken by the US State Department as highly positive and a harbinger of better understanding between the US and Pakistan even amidst tension between Iran and US, where Pakistan is desirous of peace.
—The writer is retired PAF Group Captain and a TV talk show host.

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