Congress applauds US terming Jamaat-ud-Dawa as a terror group

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor here today appreciated United States' move to include Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in its list of terrorist organizations.

"We welcome the decision taken by the US authorities to find JuD and three other front organisations of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) including the Al-Anfal Trust. The LeT has been continuing to do its nefarious works using these organisations. They claim JuD is a humanitarian organization and Al-Anfal is just a trust. The move shows that the US is reducing the area for LeT to pursue their designs," said Tharoor.

Another Congress leader Rashid Alvi said that such terrorist groups need to be completely finished as just imposing restriction will not help, and not just America but the entire world should unite and finish them.

Moreover, retired Lieutenant General Ashok Mehta added that the process had started much earlier, after the attack on Indian parliament in 2001 and the Mumbai terror attack in 2008.

"The current action taken by US against the LeT by naming them as specially designated terrorist groups is a part of the same process that happened some time back. So the LeT and its affiliates, by whatever name they go, are in the sites of the US administration and till they are brought to justice the US law will continue to shadow them," said Mehta.

On Wednesday, US added the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ( JuD) to its list of designated terror organizations. It has also added Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Al-Anfal Trust, Tehrik-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool and Tehrik-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awwal as designated aliases of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

It further slapped sanctions against two Pakistan-based LeT leaders. The Department of the Treasury targeted the financial and leadership networks of LeT by designating Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry (Ahmad) and Muhammad Hussein Gill as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).