KABUL (SW): The US government added six officials from Haqqani group to its sanctions blacklist on charges of supporting the Taliban and Haqqani network in Afghanistan and stressed their links to Pakistan.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Treasury Department announced that four of these are Afghans and two others are Pakistani nationals currently living in Pakistan.
Four of the blacklisted; Abdul Samad Sani, Abdul Qadeer Basir, Hafiz Mohammad Popalzai, and Mawlawi Inayatullah said to have been part of Taliban leadership councils in Pakistan who provided financing and weapons for militants involved in attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces. Though, Faqir Mohammad and Gula Khan Hamidi, said to have acted for the Haqqani network.
Senior Treasury Department official Sigal Mandelker said the sanctions support President Trump’s strategy in South Asia by disrupting “terrorists” organizations and publicly exposing individuals who facilitate them.
Sigal Mandelker added that five of the six were in charge of raising and transferring funds as well as equipment and materials to support the operations of the closely-linked groups, while the sixth was a senior Taliban Military affairs official.
“The Pakistani government must work with us to deny the Taliban and the Haqqani network sanctuary and to aggressively target their terrorist fundraising,” Sigal said in a statement.
The sanctions ban any individual or company with a US presence from doing business with them and the US has blocked all the assets of the six individuals included in the blacklist.
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