India welcomes US action against Pakistan based terror-cum political party Milli Muslim League

New Delhi, April 3: India on Tuesday welcomed the high voltage action of United States against Pakistan based terror-cum political party Milli Muslim League. Notably, the United States designated the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Toiba's (LeT) political front Milli Muslim League on its list of terrorist groups.

 

Welcoming the decision, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement said, "India welcomes the action taken by the US for designating the Milli Muslim League as an alias of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan based terrorist group and its functionaries who are acting on behalf of LeT.”

“It vindicates India’s position that Pakistan has not taken effective action against terrorist groups and individuals. It is also cognizance of the fact that terrorist individuals and entities are allowed to change names and continue to operate freely from territory under Pakistan’s control,” the MEA added.

The MEA further stated that the designation of Milli Muslim League is a rejection of the attempts being made in Pakistan to mainstream terrorist individuals, entities and also highlights Pakistan’s failure to fulfil its international obligation to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries and disrupt terror financing.

The United States designated several leaders of Milli Muslim League and as well as LeT's other front organizations on the list of terrorist groups. The leaders of Milli Muslim League on whom the action was taken by the US was Muzammil Iqbal Hashimi, Joint Secretary Muhammad Harris Dar, Information Secretary Tabish Qayyuum, Finance Secretary Muhammad Ehsan and Faisal Nadeem.

The US State Department in a statement said, “The aliases have been added to LeT’s designations as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Executive Order 13224.”

“Today’s amendments aim at LeT’s efforts to circumvent sanctions and deceive the public about its true character. Make no mistake: whatever LeT chooses to call itself, it remains a violent terrorist group. The United States supports all efforts to ensure that LeT does not have a political voice until it gives up violence as a tool of influence,” noted Ambassador Nathan A Sales, the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State.

Over the years since it was prescribed, the LeT has frequently changed its name to avoid sanctions. The formation of MML was announced in August last year by Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), a charity that the US accuses of being a front for an anti-India militant group, as a mainstream political front for Hafiz Saeed.

In February, Pakistan has declared Hafiz Saeed as a terrorist. The move is a part of an ordinance that it introduced to ban all individuals and organizations sanctioned against by the UN Security Council. With this Saeed and his organization JuD come under the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The 67-yr old LeT founder Hafiz Seed has a $10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities. Saeed, the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans, was included in the terror list on December 10, 2008, by the United Nations Security Council.