The US authorities have designated a Pakistan-based Islamist organisation, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, as a “global terrorist” organisation, the State Department announced on Wednesday.
The organisation is a splinter group of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and is responsible for the Easter Sunday attack on a lahore park targeting Christians in which 70 people were killed and for the killing of two US Consulate employees in Peshawar, the capital city of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, this year, the State Department said in a statement.
“The group, founded by a former TTP leader in August 2014, has staged multiple attacks in the region targeting civilians, religious minorities, military personnel, and law enforcement,” the announcement said.
The designation as a “Specially Designated Global Terroristsa” means that JuA’s property is frozen and people in the US are banned from having any dealings with it.