US puts 2 Pakistan-based groups on its terror blacklist

Two Pakistan-based Islamist groups with links to the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba and one of them blamed for the 2014 Peshawar school massacre were today designated as global terrorist outfits by the US.

The US State Department designated the Tariq Gidar Group (TGG) and Jama’at ul Dawa al-Qu’ran (JDQ) as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists”.

As a result, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which the TGG or JDQ have any interest is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them, it said in a statement.

TGG, based in Pakistan’s Darra Adam Khel, is linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban and blamed for multiple attacks, including the December 16, 2014, massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar, that left 132 schoolchildren and nine staffers dead the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan’s history.

The group’s leader, Umar Mansoor, is also known as the mastermind of the January 2016 attack on Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Pakistan, that killed 20 and wounded between 50 and 60 others.

In addition to these attacks, the TGG is responsible for the 2010 kidnapping of a British journalist traveling to North Waziristan, Pakistan, and the 2008 kidnapping and beheading of Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak in Attock, Pakistan.

Peshawar-based JDQ pledged allegiance to now-deceased Taliban emir Mullah Omar in 2010, and has long-standing ties to al-Qaeda and LeT, the State Department said.

JDQ has been responsible for various attacks, including the infamous 2010 kidnapping and death of British aid worker Linda Norgrove in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.