Islamabad: As the political wing of Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaatud Dawa fights a legal battle to get itself registered as a political party ahead of the next general elections, it has been placed by the United States on its list of foreign terrorist organisations.
Announcing the decision on Tuesday, the US said that the Milli Muslim League (MML) was merely an alias for the militant group blamed for the bloody 2008 attack in Mumbai, India.
The JuD leader Hafiz Saeed already has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. The group’s political wing shot to prominence after fielding a candidate in a September 2017 by-election to fill a seat vacated by deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif in NA-120.
Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or Army of the Pure, which is also on the U.S. terrorist list and blamed by the US and India for a four-day militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008 in which 166 people were killed.
Saeed has repeatedly denied involvement in the attack.
The US State Department said the MML alias had been added to the LeT’s designations as a terrorist group.
“These designations seek to deny LeT the resources it needs to plan and carry out further terrorist attacks,” the State Department said in a statement.
“Make no mistake: whatever LeT chooses to call itself, it remains a violent terrorist group. The United States supports all efforts to ensure that LeT does not have a political voice until it gives up violence as a tool of influence,” it added.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to the development.
Saeed was placed under house arrest in January 2017 after years of living freely in Pakistan but a court ordered his release in November 2017.
Meanwhile, an MML official condemned the US for the move, saying it was meant to undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty and constitution.
“(The) US has no right to intervene in Pakistan’s internal political matters and label terror allegations against people who themselves are against extremism,” said MML’s Information Secretary Tabish Qayyum.
“Such designations are aimed to undermine Pakistan’s sovereignty and constitution.”
India was quick to welcome the US decision saying Pakistan has failed to crack down on militants. “Terrorists are allowed to change names and continue to operate freely from territory under Pakistan’s control,” an Indian foreign office spokesman said in New Delhi.
“The designation … highlights Pakistan’s failure to fulfil its international obligation to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries, and disrupt terror financing,” he added.
Pakistan has previously denied any state involvement in the Mumbai attack or links with LeT and other militant groups. It placed the LeT on a list of banned organisations in 2002.
In October 2017, the Election Commission of Pakistan barred the MML from contesting elections, saying it had links to militant groups and could not be registered.
In March 2018, however, the Islamabad High Court ordered the election commission to register the party.
Under pressure from the US, the United Nations, and other international institutions to crack down on terrorist financing, Pakistan drew up secret plans last December for a ‘takeover’ of charities linked to Saeed.
Saeed has since taken the government decision to court.
The crackdown came in the wake of a vote by members of the Financial Action Task Force – a global anti-money laundering watchdog – to place Pakistan on its grey list of nations which are not doing enough to combat terror financing in June.
US moves against MML —Editorial —A6
Published in Daily Times, April 4th 2018.
