US adds Islamic charity organisation to terror list

FeF dubbed 'alias' of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is already on the list of 'designated foreign terrorist organizations.'

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday added  Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, a charity associated with a banned group, to its official list of blacklisted terror organizations.

The US State Department said Falah-e-Insaniyat (FeF) had been dubbed an 'alias' of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is already on the State Department's list of 'designated foreign terrorist organizations'.

Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, said the move 'shows that the United States will not tolerate any support to this organization.

'LeT has attempted to use FeF as a way to evade scrutiny. This designation will help put to an end to that attempted evasion,' Benjamin said in a statement announcing the move.

The official order also named FeF leader Hafiz Abdur Rauf and two other men associated with LeT, Mian Abdullah and Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan, to its list of 'specially designated global terrorists.'

Falah-e-Insaniyat is a name used in public by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), initially set up as the humanitarian wing of the LeT, which has been active in relief efforts for those hit by Pakistan's floods.

JuD was blacklisted by the United Nations following the November 2008 attack on Mumbai, blamed on the LeT. The group, which is also banned in Pakistan, denies it still has links to LeT.

Falah-e-Insaniyat provides education, healthcare and disaster relief and first appeared last year to help people displaced by military operations in Swat, in the northwest.

It has support and funding in the Pakistani diaspora, often in the form of donations for its charitable work. Analysts say it could exploit this network for attacks on the West.