WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday placed a splinter group of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its leaders on a list of specially designated global terrorists.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) is a splinter group of the TTP based in the Pak-Afghan border region. The group, founded by a former TTP leader in August 2014, has staged multiple attacks in the region targeting civilians, religious minorities, military personnel and law enforcement agencies.

The US State Department announced that the designation automatically imposed on the group and its leaders all sanctions that applied to foreign persons and groups determined to have committed, or posing a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism.

Designated entities are also considered a threat to the security of the US and its nationals and to its foreign policy and economy.

As a result of these designations, all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has any interest is blocked and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the group.

The group may not have such interests in the US but such designations also bring international sanctions and encourage other nations to take punitive measures as well.

“The imposition of sanctions by the United States against terrorists is a powerful tool,” the State Department said in a statement announcing the designation.

“Designations of terrorist individuals and groups expose and isolate organisations and individuals, and result in denial of access to the US financial system.

“Moreover, designations can assist or complement the law enforcement actions of other US agencies and other governments,” it added.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar was responsible for the killing of two Pakistani employees of the US Consulate in Peshawar in March. Later in that month, it carried out a suicide assault at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal amusement park in Lahore that killed more than 70 people — nearly half of them women and children — and injured hundreds more. The Easter Sunday attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan since December 2014.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2016