ISLAMABAD: The United States has added the Pakistani banned outfit Jamaatul Ahrar to its list of global militants, triggering sanctions against a group that has staged multiple attacks on civilians, religious minorities and soldiers, Reuters news service reported.
Jamaatul Ahrar had claimed responsibility for at least five major attacks in Pakistan since December last year, including the Easter Sunday bombing in a public park in the eastern part of Lahore that killed at least 70 people.
It is a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban movement that had also declared loyalty to the Islamic State militant group’s leadership in the Middle East. The group also claimed responsibility for the killing of two Pakistani employees of the US Consulate in Peshawar in early March this year.
The militant group has not yet commented on the designation that was announced by the State Department in a statement on Wednesday. The statement said that anyone who supported Jamaat-ur-Ahrar could have their assets frozen by the US government.
In recent years, Pakistan has also cracked down on movements that target its own citizens and institutions, including the Pakistani Taliban who were fighting to topple the government and install a ‘strict interpretation’ of Islamic law.
Most recently, a paramilitary crackdown was launched in Punjab, the country’s richest and most populous province, after the Easter bombing in Lahore.
