- The United States of America on July 2, 2019 designated the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which is fighting Pakistani rule in Balochistan province, as a terrorist organisation.
- According to the The US State Department, 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 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.
- LA carried out several terrorist attacks last year, including a suicide attack in August that targeted Chinese engineers in Balochistan and an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi in November that claimed four lives.
- Pakistan has already classified the outfit as a terror organisation in 2006 and have been urging the US to do the same.
- It has about 6,000 cadre spread across the Balochistan Province and in the bordering areas of Afghanistan.
- The US has also sanctioned Hezbollah operative Husain Ali Hazzima, chief of the Beirut-based terrorist group’s intelligence unit.
