WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Wednesday declared two militant organisations — the Tariq Gidar Group (TGG) and Jama’at ul Dawa al-Quran (JDQ) — as specially designated global terrorists.

TGG is linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and was responsible for attacks on the Army Public School, Peshawar, and the Bacha Khan University, Charsadda, while JDQ is associated with the Afghan Taliban as well as Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The designation imposes sanctions on foreign entities said to have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism. It would block any interest the two groups might have within the US jurisdiction.

The order would only have a symbolic impact on the two groups as they might not have any asset in the United States. But it would help restrict their movements both in and outside Pakistan as such designations are also endorsed by the United Nations, requiring all member nations to implement them.

Along with the designation, the State Department issued a charge-sheet, noting that TGG was responsible for multiple large-scale and fatal attacks, including the massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar that left 132 schoolchildren and nine staffers dead.

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

The TGG is also responsible for the 2010 kidnapping of a British journalist travelling to North Waziristan and the 2008 kidnapping and beheading of Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak in Attock.

JDQ has been responsible for various attacks, including the infamous 2010 kidnapping and death of British aid worker Linda Norgrove in Kunar province, Afghanistan, according to the charge-sheet.

“Today’s action notifies the US public and the international community that both the TGG and JDQ are actively engaged in terrorism,” said a statement the State Department issued with the designation.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2016