Claim: In a recent video, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) issued a warning to Pakistan and China to withdraw from the province.
Fact: The video is from May 2019 and was released after the BLA conducted an attack on Pearl Continental Hotel, Gwadar.
On 3 May 2025, a user on X (formerly Twitter) shared a video with the following caption:
“Baloch Liberation Army
issues a chilling warning to China and Pakistan: “Withdraw from Balochistan if you don’t want to die”.”
The video, with a BLA logo at its top-left corner, shows a group of militants positioned on a mountainside. One of them is shown sitting in front of the camera and warning China and Pakistan to halt the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in Balochistan. The man starts off by saying:
“The motive of our attack was very clear. It was a simple and clear message to China and Pakistan to withdraw immediately from Balochistan.”
Posts on X also linked the video to recent events in Pakistan, including diplomatic tensions and armed conflict with India between 22 April–10 May 2025 and the Jaffar Express hijacking on 11 March 2025. Posts alleging the former were seen here and here. Posts alleging the latter were seen here, here, and here.
Fact or Fiction?
To find out if this video was filmed in the context of a recent attack by the BLA, we conducted a reverse-image search of its keyframes, which revealed that the video had been shared online as early as 20 May 2019 on both Facebook and X. While both these instances show the same militants, they show the militant in the foreground referencing an attack on Pearl-Continental Hotel.
The instance on X is a longer version of the video in the claim. Before stating that the “motive” of the attack was to send a message to China and Pakistan to withdraw from the province (as heard in the video in the claim), the militant says:
“Our self-sacrificing squad, Majeed Brigade, attacked Pearl Continental Hotel in Gwadar and inflicted heavy losses upon both Pakistan and China.”
The attack on the hotel is mentioned again near the 45-second mark:
“The attack on Pearl Continental Hotel was part of our Operation Zir Pahazag. This is a continuous operation that has been initiated to safeguard the Baloch sea from China, Pakistan and other foreign powers.”
In the instance on Facebook – a shorter version of the video in the claim – he is heard saying the same at the 15-second mark.
Both these instances of the militant’s speech appear to have been edited out of the video in the claim.
The caption of the post on Facebook also mentioned the attack as follows:
“BLA claiming the attack on Pearl continental hotel in Pakistan and threating [sic] Chinese President #xijingping over CPEC.”
A Google search for “BLA Pearl Continental attack” led to multiple news reports on an attack on Pearl Continental Hotel, Gwadar, by the BLA in May 2019. We also came across a report by The Balochistan Post dated 19 May 2019, titled “BLA Majeed Brigade threatens Chinese president in a newly released video message”. The report includes a screengrab of the video in the claim and features dialogue that matches the words of the militant speaking in the video. The article further states that the video was released “only days after four members of Baloch Liberation Army’s Majeed Brigade stormed a five-star hotel in Gwadar”.
Hence, the video in the claim is linked to the BLA’s attack on Pearl Continental Hotel, Gwadar, which took place in May 2019. It is not linked to the recent Pak-India conflict or the Jaffar Express hijacking. Three fact–checks published by signatories of the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), corroborating that the video was from May 2019 and that it was released after the BLA attacked Pearl Continental Hotel, Gwadar.
Virality
On X, the claim that the video showed a recent warning by the BLA was seen here, here, here, and here.
The claim that the video was linked to the recent Pak-India conflict was seen here and here.
The claim that the video was linked to the Jaffar Express hijacking was seen here, here, and here.
On Instagram, the claim that the video showed a recent warning by the BLA was seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Threads, the claim that the video was linked to the Jaffar Express hijacking was seen here.
On Facebook, the claim that the video showed a recent warning by the BLA was seen here and here.
Conclusion: The video of BLA militants issuing a warning to Pakistan and China is from May 2019 and was released against the backdrop of the BLA’s attack on Pearl Continental Hotel, Gwadar. It does not have anything to do with recent events in the country like the Pak-India conflict or the Jaffar Express hijacking.
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Background image in cover photo: Associated Press of Pakistan
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