The US designated Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba’s student wing Al-Muhammadia Students a terrorist organisation on Wednesday. They also put sanctions on two of its top leaders.
The action taken by the US will be hailed by India since it has been trying to level charges against Pakistan for harbouring terrorists on its soil. India has faced multiple attacks from terrorists originating in Pakistan and attempted to rally global support in naming Pakistan as a harbinger of terror.
The LeT was designated as a terrorist organisation in December 2001 and since then has changed names and created front organisations to avoid sanctions, the state department said.
“To that effect, Al-Muhammadia Students (AMS) is the student wing of LeT,” it said.
The AMS was formed in 2009 and works with senior LeT leaders to organise recruiting courses and other activities for youth, the department said. The US Treasury Department also named two LeT senior leaders, Muhammad Sarwar and Shahid Mahmood, as global terrorists. Both leaders are known to be in Pakistan.
“These two Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders are responsible for raising and moving funds to support the terrorist groups operations,” said John E Smith, acting director, Office of Foreign Assets Control.
“Todays action not only aims to expose their activities, but also disrupts Lashkar-e-Taibas financial network and ability to carry out violent terrorist attacks,” he added.
Sarwar, who is currently LeTs emir for Lahore, has held various leadership positions in the group for more than 10 years, the treasury department said. He also worked with LeTs foreign affairs chief Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki between 2012 and 2013. He is involved in fund-raising for the terrorist group and uses the formal financial system to raise and move funds for the organisation.
He is one of two LeT officials that head the finance wing in Lahore.
Mahmood has been a senior leader since 2007. He served as the vice chairman of Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a fundraising arm of LeT, from early June to at least June 2016. His current position is not clear. FIF was earlier identified and designated as LeT’s alias. Mahmood has travelled abroad on numerous occasions to conduct business of behalf of the group. He is mainly responsible for Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh. He reportedly forges links to Bangladesh and Burma’s Islamic organisations.
“Mahmood claimed that LeT’s primary concern should be attacking India and America,” the Treasury said.
