JuD blacklisted: U.S. rethinking on Pakistan, says Praful Bakshi

Commenting on the United States' move to include Jamaat-ud-Dawa in its list of terrorist organizations, Praful Bakshi, Wing Commander (Retd) Indian Air Force, on Thursday said that this move implies that the U.S. is rethinking on Pakistan and has, therefore, approached India to help it.

"Western countries, including the U.S. is rethinking that Pakistan is a terror hub and is supporting terrorist elements, and therefore has approached India," said Bakshi.

"U.S. had already applied sanctions on JuD four years ago. But it has been finally declared that this organization is an alias of Lashkar e Taiba," he added.

He said that JuD was involved in terror attacks in Herat, Bombay and Karachi airport, and added that this group is getting arms and money from their sympathizers in other countries.

"Its leaders, Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry (Ahmad) and Muhammad Hussein Gill, have handled things very smartly. They are in charge of finance, PR and strategic thinking of the organization. They are getting sympathy from the grassroot level. They have a very deep network," he added.

"Now, the U.S. has decided to tackle them by banning their transactions and investments in the American companies. They are freezing their accounts. This financial offensive has increased the pressure on JuD and is hurting the organization," he implied.

He hoped that there will be positive and offensive actions against JuD from now onwards.

On Wednesday, U.S. 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's.

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).