The United States has designated Pakistani extremist Malik Ishaq as a “global terrorist”. Ishak is a co-founder of lashkar-e-Jhangvi (lJ), which has figured on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations for many years.
Ishaq, with this designation, joins the league of lashkar-e-Tayyeba founder Hafiz Saeed, who was branded a global terrorist in December 2008, close on the heels of the Mumbai attacks. Subsequently, the US announced a bounty of $10 million for information leading to Saeed’s arrest and conviction, but the leT boss continues to have a free run in Pakistan.
As far back as in 1997, Ishaq had admitted his involvement in terrorist activity resulting in the death of over 100 Pakistanis, mostly Shias. More recently, in February 2013, Pakistani police had arrested him in connection with the attacks in Quetta that killed nearly 200 civilians. Announcing Ishaq as “a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224” in consultation with the Departments of Justice and Treasury, the US State Department said the designation freezes all property and interests of Ishaq in the United States. It also bars US persons from engaging in transactions with Ishaq.
“lJ specialises in armed attacks and bombings and has admitted responsibility for numerous killings of Shia religious and civil society leaders in Pakistan,” the State Department said, adding the legal consequences of leJ being kept on the FTO list would continue. Meanwhile, the Obama administration’s plans to curtail drone strikes inside Pakistan, apparently in response to Islamabad’s demands, has come in for sharp criticism from Democratic lawmaker Adam Smith.
“There are still senior al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and drone strike is the best way to go after them. It has been successful to this point in stopping them from plotting and planning attacks,” Smith said, even while conceding that the drone strikes have made the local population turn against the US.
While there has been no definitive word from the administration on the subject, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters: “I can’t talk about operational matters. What I can say is that the President Barack Obama made clear in his NDU speech that by the end of 2014, in the Afghan war theatre, we will no longer have the same need for force protection and the progress we've made against core al Qaeda will reduce the need for unmanned strikes.”