US senators seek to blacklist Tehrik-e-Taliban

Four senators are seeking to force the Obama administration to blacklist the Pakistani Taliban, an AP report said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON: Four senators are seeking to force the Obama administration to blacklist the Pakistani Taliban, a day after the failed Times Square bomber pleaded guilty and admitted getting training from the group reported the Associate Press on Tuesday.

According to the AP report, the senators, all from New York and New Jersey, said they would introduce a bill requiring the State Department to designate the Pakistani Taliban a "foreign terrorist organization."

"Now that the Times Square terrorist has pleaded guilty in court, it is time to take the next step by confronting the organization that aided and abetted him," Senator Charles Schumer said in a statement.

Schumer, along with Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Robert Menendez, and Frank Lautenberg, wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in May asking that the Pakistani Taliban be added to the list. At the time, the State Department said it was reviewing such a step but had not made a decision.

A department spokesman said then that adding or removing a group from the list, which now contains 45 organizations, is a lengthy, deliberative process that must follow strict legal guidelines said the AP report.

Inclusion on the list freezes a group's assets in the US and imposes travel and financial sanctions on its members.