Pakistan on Thursday said it was disappointed with Washington’s decision to designate the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group as a foreign terrorist organisation, PTI reported. Spokesperson for the Pakistani Foreign Office Nafees Zakaria said the United States has ignored the 70-year-old Kashmiri struggle.
“Declaring organisations or groups supporting the freedom struggle in Kashmir as terrorist outfits is completely unjustified,” Zakaria said at a press conference in Islamabad. “We are disappointed with the US decision in view of the fact that Kashmir is an internationally recognised dispute.”
Zakaria also stressed that Pakistan will continue to provide moral, diplomatic and political support to the people of Kashmir.
On Wednesday, the United States had designated the Hizbul Mujahideen a foreign terrorist group and also issued sanctions against it. The sanctions prohibit Americans from conducting business with it and froze any assets the organisation may hold in the US.
“These designations seek to deny Hizbul Mujahideen the resources it needs to carry out terrorist attacks,” the US State Department had said in a statement. “The Hizbul Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the April 2014 explosives attack in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which injured 17 people.”
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