New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- The latest pro-Pakistan steps taken by Washington, including the designation of the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a terrorist organization earlier this month, are likely linked to the scramble for rare earth minerals buried beneath the deserts and mountains of Balochistan, as per a recently released report by local groups.

By designating the BLA as a terrorist organization, freezing its assets and criminalizing its support networks, something which Pakistan had been pushing for long, the United States has effectively cleared the ground for American companies to invest in one of the world's richest but most unstable mineral frontiers.

A 74 page report, "Rare Earth Minerals and Copper Reserves in Balochistan (...