US sanctions on three Pak-based outfits not binding on Pakistan, says FO

FO spokesperson says Pakistan waiting for India’s response on its Siachen demilitarisation proposal

The Foreign Office on Thursday termed the United States’ decision to designate three Pakistan-based organisations as terror groups a ‘unilateral move’ that does not apply to Pakistan.

“There is a procedure at the United Nations to declare any person or organisation a terrorist; however, the US decision to declare three Pakistani-based organisations [as terror groups] does not apply to Pakistan,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told reporters at the weekly media briefing.

On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on two Pakistan-based terrorist organisations — LeT and Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HuM) — and froze the assets of their leaders.

The announcement claimed that the assets were used for providing financial support to LeT, which is accused of carrying out the Mumbai terror attacks.

The Treasury notification described HuM as “a terrorist group that operates throughout India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and maintains terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan”.

According to the notification, in 2005, HuM attacks in Kashmir killed at least 15 people, and in 2007, an unspecified number of Indian troops were also killed in a firefight with HuM militants in the area.

To date, the Treasury Department has designated 27 individuals and three entities associated with LeT.

Placing sanctions on Harkut-ul-Mujahideen leader Fazl-ur Rehman Khalil, the US treasury said in a statement, “HuM is a terrorist group that operates throughout India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and maintains terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan.”

In addition, the treasury department also named Muhammad Naeem Sheikh and Umair Naeem, whose Lahore-based businesses Abdul Hameed Shahab-ud-Din (AHSD) and Nia International were designated for providing financial support to LeT.

In the India-US joint statement released after the Obama-Modi meeting, the two sides said, “The leaders stressed the need for joint and concerted efforts, including the dismantling of safe havens for terrorist and criminal networks, to disrupt all financial and tactical support for networks such as al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company and the Haqqanis.” The US actions point to a deeper cooperation against terrorism. National security adviser Ajit Doval has stayed on in the US to have further talks on fighting terrorism.

“Both LeT and HuM are violent terrorist organisations that train militants and support the activities of many of the best known and brutal extremist groups, including al Qaeda,” said US under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence David S Cohen.

“Today’s designations will disrupt efforts by these terrorist organisations to access their financial networks and the international financial system,” he said.

SIACHEN:

Responding to a question about the demilitarisation of Siachen, Aslam said, “India’s response on this Pakistani proposal is still awaited.”

Answering a question regarding Indian objections over Pakistan’s consultation with the Kashmiri leadership, the spokesperson said, “It is a routine matter as Pakistan always consults the Kashmiri leadership prior to any scheduled Pak-India talks.”

She brushed aside the impression that Pakistan took a U-turn on the Kashmir issue at UN, adding that UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir are still valid and the Shimla agreement does not render these resolutions invalid.