The State Department designated AQIS a “foreign terrorist organisation” and its leader, Indian-born Asim Umar, a “specially designated global terrorist.”
Al Qaeda, the militant movement founded by the late Osama bin Laden, has long been a banned group. 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.
Under the new designation, if investigators tie any assets or property under US jurisdiction to the group or its leader, they will be frozen. US citizens are forbidden from having any dealings with the group. AFP
Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2016.
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