US adds al Qaeda South Asia affiliate to ‘terror’ list

The United States added al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, a regional branch of the global extremist network, to its terror blacklist on Thursday.

The State Department designated AQIS a “foreign terrorist organization” and its leader, Indian-born Asim Umar, a “specially designated global terrorist.”

Al Qaeda, the extremist movement founded by the late Osama bin Laden, has long been a banned group, but Thursday’s order singles out a relatively new offshoot.

Bin Laden’s successor, Egyptian ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri, announced the formation of AQIS in September 2014 to carry the group’s fight to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly and sometimes spectacular attacks, which may explain the US decision to list it separately.

Under the new designation, if investigators tie any assets or property under US jurisdiction to the group or its leader, they will be frozen.

In addition, US citizens are forbidden from having any dealings with the group on pain of prosecution.

In a statement announcing the order, the State Department said AQIS had claimed responsibility for the September 6, 2014 attack on a Pakistani naval dockyard.

More recently, the group claimed the killings of several Bangladeshi atheists, gay activists, bloggers, US citizen Avijit Roy and US embassy employee Xulhaz Mannan