July 3, 2019
US declares India-backed Baloch Liberation Army a terrorist group
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The United States on Tuesday (July 2) declared India-backed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a global terrorist organization.
The US State Department said it was classifying the BLA 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.
“The BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan,” the State Department noted, citing reason behind the move.
“The outfit 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,” it added.
Jiyand Baloch, the official spokesperson of the Baloch Liberation Army, termed the US State Department’s ban as “beyond comprehension and unjustified”.
In a press statement reported by the Indian Wire, Baloch said the US has become a “victim of Pakistani diplomatic blackmailing” even when the BLA has been “abiding by international laws while resisting Pakistani and Chinese expansionist designs” in resource-rich Balochistan region, where Beijing is constructing its multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“BLA is a moderate, secular and an armed defense organization. BLA is resisting, on its motherland, against foreign intruders to protect its people. The international laws allow any person or nation to act in self-defense. The US State Department’s ban on BLA is beyond comprehension and unjustified,” Baloch said.
Indian Connection
Designation of BLA as a global terrorist organization is a setback to India which has been backing it for carrying out subversive activities to destabilize Pakistan.
In March 2016, Pakistan arrested an Indian operative Kulbhushan Yadav who was imparting Naval fighting training to Baloch separatists in an attempt to target Pakistani ports.
During interrogation it was revealed that Yadav had purchased boats at the Iranian port in Chabahar in order to target Karachi and Gwadar ports in a terrorist plot.
It was also revealed that Yadav used to visit Pakistan and lure Baloch students to carry out anti-national and other destabilizing activities by offering huge funding. Installations in coastal areas of Gawadar, Pasni, Jevani and other places in Balochistan were the target of Yadav.
According to the DG Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa Yadav was given the task to attack a five-star hotel in Gwadar where Chinese nationals used to stay.
Tellingly, in August 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed that India is backing Baloch seperatists.
In August 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated: "Today from the ramparts of Red Fort, I want to greet and express my thanks to some people. In the last few days, people of Balochistan, Gilgit, [and] Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have thanked me, have expressed gratitude, and expressed good wishes for me."
On another gathering in August 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said : The time has come when Pakistan shall have to answer to the world for the atrocities committed by it against people in Baluchistan."
The separatist Balochistan Republican Party (BRP) leader Braham dagh Bugti, who has applied for political asylum in India, thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the issue of the situation in Balochistan in the latter's Independence Day speech.
In August 2016, India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said that Pakistan has many many more vulnerabilities than India and it may lose Balochistan.
Indian newspaper, The Hindu reported that the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) commanders, in the past, had sought medical treatment in India’s hospitals, often under disguise or with fake identity.
In one such case, a militant commander in charge of Khuzdar city was based in Delhi for at least six months in 2017 when he underwent extensive treatment for kidney-related ailments. Baloch militants visits to India were often under assumed identities.
Similarly, another Baloch Liberation Army commander, Aslam Baloch alias Achu, was also alleged to have visited India in the past where he met people who were sympathetic to the his cause. Aslam Baloch was also alleged to have been treated at a hospital in New Delhi.
In June this year, a Baloch woman activist has urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfill his government’s earlier promise of making the world aware of Pakistan’s brutalities in Balochistan.
Professor Naela Quadri Baloch, the President of World Baloch Women’s Forum, made the request while congratulating Modi for securing a massive mandate to lead India for a second term.
“Halfway into its first term, his government had promised to raise our plight at the international level. While in practical terms this did not translate into any significant change in India’s approach to the Baloch issue, Pakistan used the stray statements issued by India to demonise our seven-decades-old struggle for independence as an India-sponsored movement,” Naela said.
“The Baloch people hope that the Modi government will fulfil its earlier promise of making the world aware of Pakistan’s brutalities in occupied Balochistan,” she added.
In July last year, Amir Ahmed Suleman Daud, officially known as His Highness the Khan of Kalat, welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in favour of Balochistan during his Independence Day address from the Red Fort.
"India is one of the powers of region, the biggest democracy in the world. The Prime Minister's [Modi's] was the only voice we heard in a long time coming out of the neighborhood and appreciated the intervention. We know we have got a friend," Daud told Press Trust of India at a media briefing in London.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
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