US freezes assets of Pakistanis linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday froze the assets of three Pakistanis it has linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The State Department added Abdul Rehman al-Dakhil to its list of “specially designated global terrorists,” saying he was a senior commander of the group.

The US Treasury targeted Hameedul Hassan and Abdul Jabbar, who it said were responsible for funneling money to LeT and paying salaries to its members.

“Treasury’s designations not only aim to expose and shut down Lashkar-e Taiba financial network, but also to curtail its ability to raise funds to carry out violent terrorist attacks,” Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement, using an alternate spelling of the group’s name.

The designation means all property belonging to the men subject to US jurisdiction are blocked and Americans are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

LeT, or Army of the Pure, is an anti-Indian militant group which has  been accused of orchestrating numerous attacks, including the 2008 assault in Mumbai that killed 166 people, six of them Americans.