US State Dept. Designates Pakistan-Based Terrorist Organization

The splinter group of the Pakistani terrorists named Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was included in the list of global terrorist organizations by the US State Department.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The splinter group of the Pakistani Tehrik-e-Taliban terrorists, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, has been included in the US list of global terrorist organizations, the US Department of State said in a statement.

"The Department of State has designated Jamaat-ul-Ahrar… as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which imposes sanctions on foreign persons and groups determined to have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States… Today’s action notifies the U.S. public and the international community that Jamaat-ul-Ahrar… [is] actively engaged in terrorism," the statement published on Wednesday reads.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, which is the Arab translation of the Assembly of the Free, is a militant Sunni Islamic group which broke away from the Tehrik-e-Taliban based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, in August 2014.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has been behind numerous deadly attacks inside Pakistan and is closely allied with the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda.