US designates Balochistan Liberation Army, Majeed Brigade as Foreign Terrorist Organisations
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the designation, stating that the BLA, previously listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group since 2019, has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks since then, including those carried out by the Majeed Brigade. The addition of the Majeed Brigade as an alias expands the scope of the designation.
The BLA and its faction have been involved in a series of violent incidents, including suicide bombings near Karachi airport and the Gwadar Port Authority Complex in 2024. In March 2025, the group claimed responsibility for hijacking the Jaffar Express train from Quetta to Peshawar, resulting in 31 deaths and over 300 passengers held hostage.
Secretary Rubio emphasised that these designations play a vital role in disrupting terrorist financing and support networks. 'Today's actions demonstrate the US commitment to counterterrorism and limiting resources to violent groups,' he said.
The BLA has been waging a decades-long insurgency seeking independence for Balochistan, a mineral-rich province of Pakistan. The group accuses the Pakistani government of exploiting the region's resources and marginalising the ethnic Baloch community. Both the US and Pakistan have designated the BLA as a terrorist organisation.
In a related move last month, the US designated The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy of Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, further reflecting Washington's efforts to combat terrorism in the region.
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Independence Day: From ‘Make in India' push to a stern warning to Pakistan — 10 takeaways from PM Modi's address
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Today, we have brought that number down to 20." He said: "There was a time when the mere mention of Bastar would bring to mind Naxalism, Maoism, and the sound of bombs and guns. Today, Bastar has freed itself from Naxalism and Maoism, and the youth of Bastar are participating in the Olympics". On Swadeshi PM Modi urged shopkeepers and traders to display boards for 'Swadeshi' products, urging citizens to "collectively make the Vocal for Local mantra a part of every citizen's life". "We have carried out huge reforms in Income Tax laws, some people may have missed it amid din. Past decade was of reform, perform and transform; now we have to focus on greater goals. Want our traders, shopkeepers to display boards for 'Swadeshi' products," said PM Modi. I want to urge all influencers in the country to help me promote this mantra. I say to all political parties and all leaders, let's come is not the agenda of any political party, India belongs to all of us. 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First Post
an hour ago
- First Post
How Trump has taken India-US-Pakistan dynamics back to Cold War era
The Pakistani generals are ready for the next round, post-Afghanistan, and they have a willing American president walking into a trap that he himself has set for his successors too US President Donald Trump has been escalating the way to America's India-Pakistan strategic re-set, back to the Cold War era. When everyone, starting with the Government of India, has conveniently addressed only his tariff talk viz India, no one, including the eternally pro-active sections of the Indian strategic community, has addressed the real and real-time issue which should be of greater concern to India and all Indians. Trump talked about tariff hikes and penalties, yes, but what he said even more about was the US' revived ties with Pakistan and his dumping India and Russia as 'dead economies going down together'. It is sad and sorry that both the Government of India and most commentators in the country have chosen to look the other way. 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The unspoken word is about Pakistan's unproven allegation that India is behind the Balochis' nationalist fervour. The Trump generation in the US does not know about its origins in the pre-Partition era, when the Balochis wanted to merge with India, despite their religious identity with the newly formed Pakistan, but contiguity rules did not permit it. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Indian street opinion Linked to all this is the Indian street opinion that continues to influence even the hardest of American allies in New Delhi's policy-making establishment — political, diplomatic or otherwise bureaucratic. Since before the Bangladesh War in 1971 and more definitely after the Nixon-Kissinger era's aborted despatch of the US Seventh Fleet to these parts before 92,000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered, the Indian public has always been sceptical about America and American support for India. In the self-belief that has not held for long, whether for South Asia or for other regions of the world, American policymakers have taken the rest of the world as less smart than themselves. They continue to do so in the case of India and South Asia all over again. Their lack of understanding of civilisational states, their cultural mores and what it does to their policy resilience are all to blame. Add to that the inevitability of American policy and military leadership not thinking about the day after, over which they actually do not have any control, which has shamed them no end, and repeatedly so. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Over the decades after the Second World War, this embarrassing lack of knowledge, compounded by their revolving-door entry-exit rule for policymakers, has all caused a massive loss of American face in Vietnam, Shah's Iran and, more recently, Afghanistan. Yet, their persistence with self-belief and consequent self-defeat continues. India is a functioning democracy, where, barring an occasional erratic shift or course correction, the nation's security and foreign policies have dovetailed. They have also withstood the test of time and remained predictable and self-correcting under changing regimes and new-generation leaders. In democratic terms, Pakistan is still much younger compared to India, a the political stability and continuity are provided by the generals sitting in Rawalpindi and not by the political leadership operating out of the capital, Islamabad. Peanuts and worse The Pakistan generals have seen more American presidents than you can count. They have remained steadfast in their own version of the 'Pakistan first' policy, which is self-destructive in many ways. They don't care. But as Gen Zia-ur Rehman said of President Jimmy Carter's aid offer as 'peanuts', every Pakistani general knows how to play around with Carter's successors. As an institution, they are playing for the long term and are adept at making small shifts and changes to suit the personal fancies of every American administration. In the end, they have thumbed the nose at Establishment America, and repeatedly so. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Now the generals are ready for the next round, post-Afghanistan, and they have a willing American president walking into a trap that he himself has set for his successors, too. Now, in turn, is the time for India to re-evaluate the nation's America policy, and not just the Pakistan or China policy. For, both Washington and Islamabad/Rawalpindi have forgotten that Pakistan is already Afghanistan in waiting and Afghanistan is Pakistan in the making—and in more ways than one. N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and author, is a Chennai-based policy analyst & political commentator. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
'Will Pahalgam killers, their masters decide?': J&K CM Omar Abdullah on restoration of statehood
SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday announced that he and his colleagues would launch a door-to-door signature campaign for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and hand over the document to the Centre and the Supreme Court before the next hearing in the apex court. 'Time has come that we have to move out from our offices and take our voices to the doors where these decisions are being taken,' Omar said in his Independence Day address at Bakshi Stadium, Srinagar. It was the first Independence Day address in the Union Territory by an elected Chief Minister since Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded from a state to a union territory. Abdullah's remarks came a day after a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai observed that the 'ground situation' in the region must be weighed before restoring its statehood, stressing that 'incidents like Pahalgam' could not be ignored. The Chief Minister expressed disappointment over the remarks, terming the reference to Pahalgam 'unfortunate'. 'Will the killers of Pahalgam and their masters in the neighbouring country (Pakistan) decide whether we will be a state? Every time we are close to statehood, they will do something to sabotage it. Is this fair? Why are we being punished for a crime in which we had no role?' he said. Pakistani terrorists allegedly killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists, in the Baisaran meadow in south Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22. 'My question is – if J&K is again to become a state, can our government not make such a decision? And for J&K again becoming a state, will this decision not be taken by the Supreme Court? For J&K to again have statehood, would it be decided by killers who perpetrated the Pahalgam attack or will it be decided by our neighbouring country, which is behind the militancy?' Omar asked.
