Peshawari allegedly provided assistance, including funding and recruits, to Al-Qaeda and the Taleban militia fighting to regain control of Afghanistan and battling government forces in Pakistan. -- PHOTO: AP
WASHINGTON - THE United States imposed sanctions Wednesday on an Al-Qaeda backer and three leaders of Pakistan-based Islamist group Laskhar-e-Taiba, which was blamed over last year's Mumbai attacks.
sanctions condemned
QASMANI was also linked in the Treasury statement to the July 2006 train bombing in Mumbai that killed 186 people and the February 2007 Samjota Express bombing in India's Panipat city which killed 68 people.
He allegedly conducted fundraising activities on behalf of Lashkar in 2005 and utilised money that he received from an alleged Indian crime figure and terrorist supporter Dawood Ibrahim to facilitate the July 2006 train bombing.
The US Treasury said it was imposing an assets freeze on the four, identified as Fazeel-a-Tul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen al-Peshawari, Arif Qasmani, Mohammed Yahya Mujahid and Nasir Javaid.
Peshawari allegedly provided assistance, including funding and recruits, to Al-Qaeda and the Taleban militia fighting to regain control of Afghanistan and battling government forces in Pakistan.
Qasmani is said to be the chief coordinator for Laskhar and Mujahid the head of the group's media department while Javaid had served as its commander in Pakistan.
Laskhar is widely thought to have been behind last November's 60-hour bloodbath in India's Mumbai city which led to 166 deaths.
The US Treasury said its action came two days after Peshawari, Qasmani and Mujahid were added to a UN blacklist of individuals and entities linked with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
All UN member states are obligated to freeze the funds and other assets of listed individuals and entities included on the blacklist, and to apply other sanctions, such as travel ban and arms embargo, a Treasury statement said.
President Barack Obama's administration has been piling pressure on Pakistan to bring those guilty of last year's Mumbai attacks to justice, a senior US diplomat said recently.
India blames neighboring Pakistan for harbouring those who planned the attacks, and one Pakistani national is on trial in Mumbai accused of being the only gunman who survived. -- AFP
