Designations: US puts Haqqani network commander on global terror list

However, the group has not been designated a terror outfit yet.

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department has added five men, including a Haqqani network commander, to the list of specially designated global terrorists. The move comes barely a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the US government was in the final formal review stage of designating the Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization.

The move is seen by some analysts as a compromise with one eye on a future settlement in Afghanistan. The Haqqanis are likely to be part of a political settlement in Afghanistan when the US withdraws its military presence. If the entire group is branded a terrorist organisation, this could be a stumbling block in future negotiations, as the US will have already tied its own hands. Alternatively, the move could be viewed as a stepping stone to designating the Haqqani network a terrorist organisation outright. Either way, for now the US has not closed the door to future talks with the group.

Under Executive Order 13224, the five individuals have been accused of providing financial, material or technological support, or acting for or on behalf of terrorist organisations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Under the law, US citizens are now barred from engaging or transacting with them, and any assets under US jurisdiction will be frozen.

The five individuals include Abdul Aziz Abbasin, described as a key Haqqani Network commander, and the Taliban shadow governor of Orgun District in Paktika, Afghanistan. Abbasin has been accused of training fighters in Paktika, ambushes of supply vehicles, and transporting weapons to Afghanistan.

Also in the list of designees is Hajji Faizullah Khan Noorzai, a Taliban financier and facilitator of Taliban training and operations. The Treasury Department said Faizullah had helped move Taliban suicide bombers from Pakistan into Afghanistan in 2009, and also operated a madrassah near the Af-Pak border, which not only raised funds for the Taliban but also provided their fighters with training.

His brother, Hajji Malik Noorzai (Malik), a Pakistan-based businessman, has been accused of investing the Taliban’s finances, and handling a “hawala account in Pakistan that received tens of thousands of dollars transferred from the Gulf every few months to support Taliban activities.”

Abdur Rehman, a Taliban facilitator and financier, has also been placed on the list. “Rehman is also a former provincial-level JEM leader, once serving as the primary point of contact for JEM in Karachi,” said the Department of Treasury. Fazal Rahim, the fifth individual on the list, was arrested in May 2010 by Pakistan, and has been accused of being a financier and facilitator of Al-Qaida and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

The Department of Treasury added Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi to its list of designees.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2011.