WASHINGTON- The US labelled a Lahore-based money-changer a “global terrorist” Wednesday, saying he provided financial services to militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai.
The US Treasury said Muhammad Iqbal, who owns and runs the Asma Money Exchangers in Lahore, conducts financial transactions on behalf of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates.
It said he is a founding member and finance secretary of the charity Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, which the US named as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2010. In this role and as owners of Asma Money Exchangers, Iqbal solicited donations for and sent money to officials of Lashkar-e-Taiba, it said.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons in which Iqbal and Asma Money Exchangers have an interest are blocked, and US persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them,” the Treasury said.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was blamed for the 2008 attacks by gunmen in Mumbai which killed 166 people and triggered a complete breakdown in ties between New Delhi and Islamabad.
US MOVES PRISONERS
PAKISTAN
Reuters adds: The United States has moved additional prisoners out of a small military prison in Afghanistan, bringing the number of people remaining at the US detention centre near the Afghan capital to under 30, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.
Nine prisoners were sent to Pakistan last week from the Parwan detention centre, located on a military base near Kabul, said Lieutenant Colonel Myles Caggins III, a US military spokesman.
Another two prisoners were sent to Yemen this week, Caggins added.
The Obama administration has been moving prisoners out of Parwan in step with its gradual military withdrawal from Afghanistan.