US blacklists Pak charity foundation as “alias” of banned terrorist group LeT
By ANIThursday, November 25, 2010
WASHINGTON - The United States has added Pakistan’s Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, a charity group closely associated with banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, to its official list of blacklisted terror organisations.
“On November 24, 2010 the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury and the U.S. Attorney-General, has amended the designation of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) … by adding Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) as an alias of LeT,” the US State Department said in a press release.
“Today, the Department of the Treasury also designated LeT senior leader and current head of FIF, Hafiz Abdur Rauf, Mian Abdullah, the head of LeT’s Traders Department, and Mohmmad Naushad Alam Khan, a key financial facilitator for LeT, as Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” it added.
According to the statement, these actions would “help stem the flow of finances to LeT through FIF and provide the Department of Justice with a critical tool to prosecute those who knowingly provide material support to LeT and its senior leaders.”
FIF is a Pakistan-based organization, closely connected to “LeT and its humanitarian front Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD). LeT has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts against Pakistani, Indian and U.S. interests and is responsible for the horrific November 2008 Mumbai attacks,” it noted.
“In essence, FIF is JUD with a new name, designed to evade scrutiny and sanctions,” the statement said, adding that the “various actions taken today against FIF support the U.S. effort to degrade the capabilities of LeT. We are determined to eliminate LeT’s ability to carry out terrorist attacks and to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat its networks.”
The Department of State’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, said that this move shows that “the United States will not tolerate any support to this organization.”
“LeT has attempted to use FIF as a way to evade scrutiny. This designation will help put to an end that attempted evasion,” Benjamin added. (ANI)
