Skip to main content

FTO Series: Insurgent Group in Pakistan Threatens U.S. Economic Interests

While not an active threat to the homeland, the Balochistan Liberation Army poses a risk to U.S. investments in the Balochistan region.

Map highlighting Pakistan’s Balochistan province in orange, showing its location along the borders of Iran and Afghanistan and its coastline on the Arabian Sea. Surrounding countries are labeled and shaded in gray.

Map of Pakistan's Balochistan province (Encyclopedia Brittanica).

In March 2025, Pakistan’s daily passenger train between Quetta and Peshawar, the Jaffar Express, was hijacked by armed militants from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA). Holding more than 400 passengers hostage in a 36-hour standoff with the Pakistani military, the hijackers killed 26 passengers and security personnel, according to the State Department. In August 2025, the U.S. designated the BLA as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Read the paper: “Beyond Balochistan: The Designation of the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Majeed Brigade as Terrorist Organizations” profiles the group’s structure and capabilities, motivations, and its potential threat to U.S. economic interests. The paper’s author is NCITE Research-to-Practice Fellow Dexter Ingram.

Why it matters: FTO designations can address issues beyond direct risks to homeland security. This sweeping security mechanism’s diverse application — inclusive of economic threats — is a nuance necessary to understand its potential in the broader context of U.S. national security and foreign policy.

Key takeaways:

  • Their interests are border-bound and they target foreign investment and critical infrastructure. The BLA is based in Balochistan, the largest and poorest province of Pakistan, which encompasses about 44% of the nation’s territory with a population of about 15 million. Ethno-nationalist and secular, the group’s chief political goal is to obtain independence from Pakistan and its primary grievance is the combined state and foreign exploitation of the region’s resources with little benefit returning to the region itself.
    • In line with this grievance, the group prioritizes attacks on rail, ports, energy and mining, financial centers, non-Baloch citizens, and foreign nationals. At least 30 Chinese nationals have been killed in the past decade because they are the most visible foreign investors in the region. As of Dec. 2025, the U.S. also has economic interests in the province (discussed more below), which is the chief motivator for the designation.
  • The U.S. terrorist designation targets the BLA's broader operational structure, not just its leadership. Beyond designating the BLA, the order identifies three of its compartments as aliases: The Majeed Brigade (suicide wing), the Fateh Squad (urban assaults and follow-on operations), and the Zephyr Intelligence Research and Analysis Bureau (intelligence wing). Because each division conducts major operations with a high degree of independence, their inclusion prevents the group from placing operations under a separate division to avoid sanctions.
  • The BLA is evolving into a more sophisticated insurgency capable of large-scale, coordinated attacks. Once primarily associated with guerrilla attacks and bombings, the BLA has demonstrated the ability to coordinate assaults across multiple districts, seize territory, and hold government facilities. Its growing operational sophistication includes intelligence gathering, sophisticated propaganda, and emerging drone capabilities, although the group has not demonstrated sustained offensive drone operations.
    • In a January 2026 wave of coordinated attacks, the group overran police stations and government offices, took two high-ranking district officials hostage, and held a major town for three days.
  • The BLA poses a threat to American economic interests, not homeland security itself. The group has neither demonstrated the capability nor expressed an intent to attack the United States. In Dec. 2025, the Export-Import Bank of the United States approved a $1.25 billion project to mine copper-gold deposits in the region, part of a larger strategy to secure critical mineral supply chains. With the BLA's track record of attacking foreign investment and critical infrastructure, the designation lays the groundwork for securing the project.
    • The designation also enables the enforcement of material support laws (from any sympathizers in the U.S.) and the ability to impose sanctions in case of attack on American personnel or funded infrastructure.

What they're saying:

  • Mackenzie Harms Wickersham, Ph.D., FTO Series Editor
    • “The designation … reflects a unique threat vector when compared to other terrorist designations in 2025. This escalation recognizes BLA's violence against U.S. counterterrorism partners, its targeting of foreign investment, and its fundraising among diaspora communities in Europe, North America, and the Middle East.”

What’s next: This report is part of an ongoing NCITE research series examining the more than 30 groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. Department of State in 2025 and 2026. Look for more reports to be published this month, and go to the series landing page to read about all the groups.