This Article is From Nov 25, 2010

US blacklists Pakistan-based charity with Lashkar ties

Washington: As part of its ongoing crackdown against Pakistan-based terror groups, US has slapped sanctions against more key Lashkar-e-Toiba leaders and its affiliates.

The senior LeT members who have been designated as global terrorists are Mian Abdullah, head of its Traders' Department, and Mohmmad Naushad Alam Khan, a key financial facilitator for the organisation.

Sanctions have also been slapped against Pakistan-based Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), which is closely connected to banned terrorist group LeT and also to its front Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).

LeT has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist acts against Pakistani, Indian and US interests and is responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks which killed 166 people. The group has been closely associated with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida network.

LeT senior leader and current head of FIF, Hafiz Abdur Rauf, has also been designated as a global terrorist.

"Today's amendment of the LeT designation to include FIF shows that the United States will not tolerate any support to this organisation. LeT has attempted to use FIF as a way to evade scrutiny. This designation will help put to an end that attempted evasion," said the State Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Ambassador Daniel Benjamin.

"Few individuals are more integral to LeT's fundraising than Hafiz Abdur Rauf and Mian Abdullah," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Stuart Levey.

"In their respective capacities, today's designees play key roles in advancing LeT's operations and soliciting financial support on its behalf.

"These actions will 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," the State Department said.

The various actions taken today against FIF support the US effort to degrade the capabilities of LeT. We are determined to eliminate LeT's ability to carry out terror attacks and to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat its networks, it said.

Hafiz Abdur Rauf, a member of LeT's senior leadership since 1999, is the FIF chief.

As of mid-2009, LeT was using the name FIF to fundraise and evade international pressure on LeT following the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

In 2009, Rauf as a fundraiser in Pakistan, raised money for the organisation under the FIF alias.

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