The United States on Tuesday designated Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil, a senior commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba who carried out attacks in India, as a specially designated global terrorist. Two others who worked as financial facilitators for the banned outfit were also on the list.
Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil has been designated a global terrorist to deny him resources to plan and carry out terrorist attacks, an announcement by the US Department of State said on Tuesday. The US State Department imposes sanctions “on foreign persons who have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of US nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States,” according to the statement.
Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil, also known as Danish Ahmad, has been a close associate of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. He was the operational leader of the LeT’s attacks in India between 1997 and 2001 and the group’s divisional commander for the Jammu region in 2016, ANI reported. He is still a senior commander of the group.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Tuesday designated two of the group’s financial facilitators – Hameed ul Hassan and Abdul Jabbar – as specially designated global terrorists.
“These Lashkar-e-Tayyiba financial facilitators are responsible for collecting, transporting and distributing funds to support this terrorist group and provide salaries to extremists,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker in a statement. “Treasury’s designations not only aim to expose and shut down Lashkar-e-Tayyiba’s financial network, but also to curtail its ability to raise funds to carry out violent terrorist attacks.”
The move comes after the US conveyed to Pakistan its concern about the participation of individuals affiliated to the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group in the July 25 general elections. The US suspended nearly $2 billion dollars in security aid for Pakistan in 2018 and the Financial Action Task Force placed the country to its grey list in June for failing to counter terror financing.
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