Pakistan and China have jointly asked the United Nations Security Council to designate the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and its Majeed Brigade as terrorist organisations.
The request was submitted to the Council’s 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee, which maintains a global terrorism blacklist.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, told the Security Council on Wednesday that groups including ISIS-Khorasan, Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, and the BLA were operating from “more than 60 terrorist camps” in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan and China have jointly submitted to the 1267 Sanctions Committee a request to designate the BLA and Majeed Brigade. We hope the Council will act swiftly on this listing to curb their terrorist activities,” Mr Ahmad said.
Pakistan is currently serving as a non-permanent member of the Council for the 2025–26 term. China, a permanent member with veto power, has backed Islamabad’s request. Pakistan also chairs the Council’s 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee and is vice-chair of its Counter-Terrorism Committee this year.
Mr Ahmad said Taliban authorities in Kabul must meet their international obligations on counter-terrorism, warning that “terrorism emanating from Afghanistan remains the biggest threat to Pakistan’s national security.”
The Majeed Brigade, formed in 2011, is the BLA’s suicide unit and has primarily targeted Pakistani security forces and Chinese interests in Balochistan.
Last month, the US designated the BLA and its Majeed Brigade as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. The State Department also listed the Majeed Brigade as an alias of the BLA’s existing Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) designation.
Washington had already blacklisted the BLA in 2019 following several attacks. Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for further operations, including suicide bombings near Karachi airport and the Gwadar Port Authority complex in 2024.
In March 2025, the BLA said its fighters hijacked the Jaffar Express train from Quetta to Peshawar, taking Pakistani soldiers hostage before killing them.
Responding to the US sanctions, BLA spokesperson Jeeyand Baloch called the designation a “disregard for ground realities” and an endorsement of a “colonial narrative.”
“We view this decision neither with surprise nor as a new form of pressure,” he said. “The Baloch Liberation Army is a resistance force that is solely active against the military dominance of the occupying state and is engaged only for the liberation of its occupied homeland.”