In the changing face of fifth-generation warfare (5GW), the battlefield's attention has shifted from the physical frontline to perception and story.
Here, states are not pursuing strategic objectives through confrontation but by fostering proxies that pose as organic liberation movements. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the perfect example of this doctrine in clinical form. Operating under the banner of Baloch separatism, an untimely measure of transformation of the legitimate socioeconomic grievances into an instrument of regional destabilisation has been adopted by the organisation.
From Pakistan’s point of view, this is not an internal ethno-nationalist struggle but a well-calibrated external project whose main victims are the very Baloch citizens it seeks to represent, and the ripple effects of which now threaten stability throughout South and Central Asia, raising regional and global security concerns.
The change that has taken place is thin and observable. What used to be sporadic insurgent activity starting decades ago has since the mid-2010s degenerated into a campaign of mass-casualty and infrastructure destruction as well as deliberately targeting economic lifelines. The BLA has taken credit for suicide attacks, train hijacking, including the seizure of the Jaffar Express in March 2025, which left dozens of civilians and security personnel dead, and repeated attacks on Chinese engineers and CPEC projects. These are not the tactics of a traditional insurgency demanding political accommodation, but the operational signature of a contemporary terrorist network.
This assessment is no longer solely about Pakistani assertion. In August 2025, the US added the BLA and its alias, the Majeed Brigade, to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTO), following its designation as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2019. The designation followed a pattern of attacks, which included suicide operations near Karachi airport and the Gwadar Port Authority complex. Parallel listings by Pakistan (from 2006), China, Iran, the UK and the European Union represent a general international consensus that the BLA’s methods fall squarely outside the category of legitimate political resistance. Under international humanitarian law and counterterrorist frameworks, willful targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is terrorism, regardless of what ideological wrapping it is dressed in.
Empirical information from inside Balochistan further undermines the separatist narrative. Independent opinion polls conducted by Gallup Pakistan, supported by assessments from the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), have repeatedly revealed that the ordinary Baloch people are more concerned about jobs, better governance, the availability of basic services and the restoration of law and order, rather than any secessionist agenda.
Mainstream Baloch political parties and leaders have, many times, opted for the constitutional path, having competed in elections, participated in parliamentary proceedings and urged an increase in provincial autonomy and equity of resources within the federation. The BLA’s campaign, on the other hand, systematically undermines the very precondition for such reforms: security, investment, and institutional trust.
The external sponsorship dimension supplies strategic coherence. Pakistani efforts, both in forensics and finance, immediately after any major incident, have repeatedly enabled the traceability of operational and logistical support to RAW in India. The case of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian naval officer who was arrested in 2016 while he was working under a false identity in Balochistan, is still an example. His confessions revealed a mandate to finance, arm and organise Baloch militant groups such as the BLA with the clear objective of creating a ‘sea front’ of instability on Pakistan’s Makran coast.
These admissions, backed by documentary evidence presented at various forums, fit into a wider pattern. The BLA’s selection of targets, CPEC infrastructure, Chinese personnel and high-value economic assets, is directly in line with the objective to derail Pakistan’s Regional Connectivity Projects and keep Islamabad strategically off-balance.
This patronage extends in tactical terms to collaboration with the TTP. This entity has itself found nourishment from the sanctuaries in the border region under the control of the Afghan Taliban, with what Pakistani intelligence sources claim is indirect external facilitation. The nexus of these networks of ethno-nationalist terrorism fused with transnational militancy is no coincidence. It is a classic case of a 5GW multiplier: one amplifies the disruptive capacity of the other, and external sponsors preserve their plausible deniability through a network of intermediaries.
Such conduct includes clear violations of international legal obligations. UNSC Resolution 1373 (2001) obliges all states to refrain from aiding entities involved in terrorist acts, a mandate reinforced by the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, to which India is a party. When a sponsoring state guides operations with terrorist characteristics, as evidenced by the US FTO designation, it breaches these international commitments. These violations have regional consequences, endangering Pakistan-China cooperation and energy security corridors between the Gulf, Iran, and Central Asia, thereby threatening global economic stability and regional peace.
However, the human cost affects the Baloch the most, this being the moral inversion of this 5GW strategy. Every bombing, extortion-facilitated economic shutdown and assassination of local officials or development workers creates an environment of growing insecurity, stalling job creation, infrastructure development and governance reforms. Legitimate grievances about underdevelopment, resource sharing and political inclusion are very real and are recognised by the Pakistani government through initiatives such as the 18th Amendment and CPEC investments. Yet, the BLA exploits these problems to pursue monetary gain and perpetuation by collecting taxes, silencing moderate voices and reducing the scope for constitutional dialogue pursued by mainstream Baloch leaders, which should evoke empathy and concern among informed readers.
This is the fundamental genius and immorality of the strategy. The BLA cloaks itself in the language of freedom and self-determination, thus winning for it a measure of international ambiguity and domestic sympathy that pure criminal or jihadist entities could never command. In terms of 5GW, the narrative always comes first, before the kinetic effect. As long as the group is cast as ‘separatist’ rather than as a terrorist, its sponsors will not be held to account, its victims will be framed as suffering collateral damage in a noble cause and real Baloch aspirations will be held hostage by outside geopolitical rivalries.
Pakistan’s response has been manifold and restrained. However, militarily sustained operations have undermined BLA networks, prioritising precision to minimise civilian impact. Diplomatically, Islamabad has shared granular aspects of intelligence with partners, culminating in the US designation, which removes any residual ambiguity. Domestically, there is still a focus on addressing root causes, accelerating development projects, strengthening local governance with elected assemblies and inclusive political processes. The aim is not suppression but resolution – to separate the legitimate demands from the terrorist apparatus for their exploitation.
The international community is faced now with a clarifying moment. With the US’s formalisation of the BLA’s FTO status and the echoes of that in other jurisdictions, the line between grievance and terrorism is no longer debatable. It is not necessary to forego engagement with New Delhi on other fronts in recognising India’s place as a patron and then requiring the enforcement of universal counter-terrorism norms. Continued ambiguity only increases the misery of the Baloch citizenry and raises the risk of greater regional contagion spreading in and of itself.
Ultimately, the exposure of this 5GW proxy reveals a larger truth. In an interconnected world, no state can indefinitely shift instability without consequences. Pakistan has endured attacks from the Jaffar Express atrocity and repeated CPEC targets without abandoning its policy on Balochistan, despite terrorism.
The path forward is to persist in exposing Balochistan to outside influence, to enforce international law strictly and to implement swift internal reforms that improve the lives of the people of Balochistan. Only then can it reverse the narrative shift; the proxy can be dismantled and the province’s true potential as a driver of national and regional prosperity can finally be realised.
Barrister Rashid Ahmed is an international law expert. Mohsin Durrani is an international and regional affairs analyst.
