WASHINGTON: The United States imposed on Tuesday sanctions on a brother of the leader of the Haqqani Network, adding him to its terrorist blacklist.

Abdul Aziz Haqqani, a brother of the network’s leader Sirajuddin, is an active member of the network.

Sirajuddin, who is already on the US list of foreign terrorists, also has a $5 million bounty on him, announced in 2014.

In 2012, the US State Department listed the Haqqani Network as a foreign terror organisation.

Authorities in Kabul have blamed the group for a series of bombings in the city earlier this month that killed more than 50 people, including a US soldier.

Separately, the US Treasury Department removed sanctions on Saajid Badat, a UK-born former Al Qaeda operative of Pakistani-origin, who was sentenced to prison for a shoe-bomb plot. He later became an informant and was the key prosecution witness in the US trial of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical Muslim cleric.

Mr Badat served his time in prison for his involvement with Al Qaeda, has renounced violence and terrorism, and he has cooperated with US and UK authorities, in addition to the testimony in multiple trials against Al Qaeda leaders.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2015

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