Welcoming news reports that Pakistan plans to outlaw 12 terror outfits including lashkar-e-Tayyeba founder Hafiz Saeed’s front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Haqqani network, the United States has said it would be “an important step toward eliminating terrorist activity in Pakistan”. Although there has been no official announcement yet, Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper has cited senior officials as saying that a formal announcement would be made in “coming days”.
The purported move comes close on the heels of US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Islamabad during which he did some tough talking, asking Pakistan to go all-out against all terror groups and eliminate them from its soil. While commenting on the reports, State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf: “We’ve been very clear with the Pakistani Government that they need to crack down and go after all terrorist groups.” She noted that Pakistani people themselves “are, unfortunately, the victims of more terrorist attacks than, I think, people probably anywhere else”.
“The Secretary (Kerry) was just there and had a wide-ranging conversation with the Pakistanis about counterterrorism, certainly. He emphasised that we’re committed to deepening our security partnership with Pakistan, and obviously had many conversations with Prime Minister Sharif and others,” Harf said, adding: “I know this (reported decision to ban a dozen terror outfits) was just an announcement that this is planning to happen. I don’t have more details on when it might.”
Meanwhile, the US authorities have charged two Pakistani-American brothers with attempted murder of two deputy US Marshals and struggling with prison guards inside the Miami federal courthouse complex. locked up since 2012, the brothers — Raees Alam Qazi, 22, and Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 32 — were previously charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. Prosecutors said the younger man planned to set off a bomb in New York City.
The younger brother, Raees Qazi, travelled to New York and rode a bicycle around Manhattan to scout potential landmarks for a bombing attack, Miami Herald reported, citing the FBI. But he ran out of money and returned to Fort lauderdale in Florida, where he and his brother were arrested. The new indictment, issued Thursday, also adds new terrorism charges - of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — against the two men. They are expected to go to trial later this year.