- Preparations for PM’s visit?
The US has designated the Baloch Liberation Army a global terrorist organisation, thereby accepting that it is an organisation which has launched an armed insurrection. The first fruit of this designation may well be ending of funding for the occasion. One of the more important sources of funding is from the migrant workers in the Gulf, who include a significant Baloch component. The Baloch have provided Gulf Armies, both in Oman and Qatar, substantial recruits, and some have even won naturalisation. One way of proving one’s ‘Baloch-ness’ has been to donate to the BLA. This step reverses some of the lionising of Baloch separatists that was beginning in Congress, which heard testimony from them. This was an Indian move, and Pakistan needs to be careful about Indian moves to get the US to declare Kashmiri freedom fighters terrorists. Such designation would not be fair, because the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference does not call for violence, but it would not be the first time that justice has been sacrificed at the altar of national interest. India may also find it harder to support Baloch separatists generally, and the BLA specifically, which it has been accused of doing.
It is worth noting that the US has taken this step despite it benefiting China, with which it has still a tariff war going, and Iran, with which it is on the verge of a shooting war. It must not be ignored that the BLA has not harmed US interests, but has targeted both Chinese and military targets, such as the Gwadar hotel attack, Chinese consulate attack in Karachi and other incidents of terrorism. Also, by proscribing an organisation propagating separatism from Pakistan, the US has indicated it may not support the separatist movements of Iranian Baluchistan, as it was suspected of doing with help from some Arab states.
While the US may have inadvertently helped China and Iran, it was deliberate about helping Pakistan. This might be something to do with Pakistan’s role in helping the talks with the Taliban, which has been such, as to get the Pakistani Prime Minister the prospect of a visit to the US, and the US might have realised that it needed to do some dealing with Pakistan’s concerns. Pakistan has not yet eliminated the BLA, as it would like, but this may well be the beginning of the end.
