Majeed Brigade Declared Foreign Terrorists | Pakistan’s Southwest to the U.S. Watchlist

The US formally listed on August 11, 2025, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its sub-group, the Majeed Brigade, on its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTOs) list. This action implies that the U.S. now considers these groups as significant sources of security threats due to its anti-terror laws and thus can freeze their assets, prohibit their support, and collaborate with different nations to restrict their operation. BLA is a militant separatist group that is active in the southwestern region of Balochistan in Pakistan, where they are known to attack civilians, security personnel, and infrastructure by killing them. Its Majeed Brigade has been particularly notorious with high-profile bombings and attacks by strategic insurgents. According to U.S. officials, the designation will help in the larger financial and strategic plan to choke their networks and keep militants from raising funds and extending their active presence in different parts of the world, particularly following violent acts such as the hijacking of the Jaffar Express in March 2025 and the Quetta railway station bombing in November 2024.

FAH & Majeed Brigade

One of the most widely known armed separatist organizations in Pakistan, Fitna-al-Hind (BLA), emerged as the expression of the long-term insurgency within Pakistan in the southwestern province of Balochistan. It appeared in the early 2000s and is supported by some parts of the local baloch community who allege to be politically neglected, denied autonomy and poorly exploited the region through its rich resources like natural gas, coal and minerals by the central government. Since its foundation, the BLA has waged scores of attacks against Pakistani security forces, government officials, and infrastructure, and in recent years, it has started striking more frequently at targets related to China’s China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), believing that they are perceived as a means of exploitation.

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The Majeed Brigade is considered by BLA to be its most dangerous operational wing. This elite unit was constituted in 2010, and it deals specifically with high-risk, high-suction operations with a specific focus on suicide attacks and commando raids. It has also taken responsibility for various fatal attacks, such as the bombing of the Chinese consulate in Karachi in 2018, a suicide attack against Chinese engineers in Gwadar in 2019, and other attacks on convoys of the Pakistani military. The Majeed Brigade (or Quetta strain of Majeed Brigade) has more recently been implicated in the November 2024 bombing of the Quetta Railway station, killing at least 32 people and injuring several dozen, as well as the March 2025 hijacking of the Jaffar Express, where militants took control of a passenger train and killed over 30.

This group has an ideology of Baloch nationalist separatism coupled with the use of militant tactics meant to attract the attention of the international community to their cause. The BLA and the Majeed brigade have also engaged in propaganda, particularly on social media platforms that allow them to take credit for the attacks and administration of their political message. These groups have long been banned by the Pakistani government and are considered terrorist groups within the country; however, their members have been able to maintain operations in areas such as the rural refuge of Balochistan in the southwest and the warmer city of Karachi in the central east coast.

Key Events of Escalation of Violence

Throughout the decades, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its Majeed Brigade have been tied to major high-profile and deadly attacks that have kept them in the news circuits of Pakistan security interests, and currently the U.S. counter-terrorist policy. Perhaps the most spectacular in recent memory was the March 2025 Jaffar Express hijacking, where heavily armed militants derailed and hijacked a passenger train as it was travelling on the Quetta-Rawalpindi route. The assailants held the train hostage to hundreds of passengers, killing over 30 people and burning down parts of it before the security forces came in. Besides attracting a national outcry, the incident also gathered a lot of international condemnation for the brutality and magnitude of the attack.

In November 2024, the Majeed Brigade carried out a destructive suicide bombing at Quetta railway station, resulting in 32 people dying and more than 55 people being injured. They attacked a civilian hotspot; this was an indication that the group was ready to carry out attacks in the inner cities. In 2024, armed attacks also occurred near the airport of Karachi, Jinnah International Airport, and several roadside bomb attacks in Gwadar, especially involving Chinese nationals and CPEC-related projects. These attacks were aligned by a definite pattern of operations: the preference for high-profile targets with strategic value cumulated with symbolism.

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Other assaults have been the bombing in May 2025 of a school bus in Khuzdar that killed both children and school personnel, repeated ambushes on Pakistani army convoys in remote regions of Balochistan, followed by propaganda videos claiming responsibility, and others. Pakistan has since May 2025 retaliated with intensified counterinsurgency efforts dubbed Operation Herof 2.0 that have seen raids, airstrikes, and comprehensive security crackdowns on insurgency-affected areas in the region. The government has also shut down mobile data and blocked social media in some areas of Balochistan to hamper communications and recruitment by militants.

Strategic Implications of this Status

On August 11, 2025, when the U.S. listed the Balochistan Liberation Army (BPA) and its Majeed Brigade as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), it marked a significant step by Washington against these separatist militants. The U.S. had earlier designated the BLA as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in 2019, which permits asset freezes and sanctions. Nevertheless, stricter measures introduced by the new status of FTO are more robust. It makes it a criminal offense to give material assistance to the groups, issues travel bans on individuals of the groups, and allows the facilitation of wider cooperation of countries to locate and shut down the organization’s funding channels.

The designation came as a direct result of a pattern of lethal attacks, as well as continuing targeting of civilians, security forces, and foreign nationals in Pakistan. It has been pointed out that the decision was taken immediately after the visit of Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir to Washington, indicating that the move is a political gesture to back the counterterrorism issues raised by Islamabad. It also concurs with the U.S. international counterterrorism policy that intends to make havoc in militant groups before the latter have time to deepen their areas of operations or raise new funding sources.

Regional and Geopolitical Consequences

The implications of this American choice are broad, regional/geopolitical. In the case of Pakistan, the name is not merely symbolic but is held to be an international confirmation of its long-held convictions that the Baloch separatist militants are not only a domestic menace but are an element of instability in the region in general. Islamabad has been accusing these groups of having quiet external support, and the U.S move will reinforce its diplomatic stand in bringing up the matter in international forums.

The move is relevant in China beyond the borders of Pakistan, going into their interests within the region. Several CPEC projects are targeted by the BLA and the Majeed. By labeling the groups as terrorists, the U.S. ends up assisting in protecting Chinese investments despite tensions between the U.S and China, since such strikes hamper the economic stability of the region. It also exerts pressure on Afghanistan, where the Pakistani authorities believe that certain elements of BLA enjoy safe havens, to move much more decisively under the gaze of the international community.

On the international front, this classification is contained within the bigger counterterrorism strategy of Washington, which aims at strangling militant funding, halting the influence of propaganda networks, and avoiding spillover insurgencies. Nevertheless, although such measures can undermine the operational ability of militant organizations, it does not address the underlying root causes of the insurgency in Balochistan, including calls for higher autonomy, political inclusion, and equitable resource distribution.