US has designated Milli Muslim League (MML) as well as Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Kashmir (TAJK) as foreign terrorist groups.
The State and the Treasury Departments announced that the MML, which openly campaigns with posters of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, had been added under LeT’s designation as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO) and as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” (SDGT) under two different laws.
The Treasury Department specified that members who were designated as SDGTs included MML President Saifullah Khalid, Vice President Muzammil Iqbal Hashimi, General Secretary Fayyaz Ahmad, Joint Secretary Muhammad Harris Dar, Information Secretary Tabish Qayyuum, Finance Secretary Muhammad Ehsan as well as Broadcast and Publications Secretary Faisal Nadeem.
The Treasury Department said that “all property and interests in property of these persons subject to US jurisdiction are blocked” and US citizens were banned from having any transactions with them.
“Make no mistake: whatever LeT chooses to call itself, it remains a violent terrorist group,” the Department’s Counterterrorism Coordinator Nathan A. Sales said in Washington.
Treasury Under Secretary Sigal Mandelker warned that “those working with the Milli Muslim League, including providing financial donations, should think twice about doing so or risk exposure to US sanctions.
“Treasury is targeting the Milli Muslim League and a group of seven global terrorists who are complicit in LeT’s attempts to undermine Pakistan’s political process,” she added.
Hafiz Saeed created MML in August last year as political front.
“LeT members make up MML’s leadership and the “so-called party” openly displays Saeed’s likeness in its election banners and literature,” the State Department said.