Following a claim of responsibility for the attempted bombing of Times Square in New York by the Pakistani Taliban (know by the acronym TTP) on May 2nd, the US State Department said on Tuesday it was looking into putting the group on the US list of “foreign terrorist” groups.
On Sunday, US Attorney-General Eric Holder said there was evidence the group was behind the crude bomb attempt.
“The evidence we’ve now developed shows that the Pakistani Taliban has directed this plot ... And I suspect that we are going to come up with evidence which shows that they helped to finance it,” Holder said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized US citizen born in Pakistan, was arrested trying to flee the US on a flight to Dubai two days after authorities say he parked a SUV packed with a bomb in Times Square. He has admitted to the plot and to receiving bomb training in Waziristan, Pakistan, US prosecutors have said.
US officials initially doubted the TTP claim but after Shahzad’s arrest, Holder decided to come out publicly with the connection.
Adding the Pakistani Taliban to the list would trigger punitive measures such as freezing assets tied to the group, barring foreign nationals with links to it from entering the US and making it a crime to provide any material help.
Five Democratic US senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday urging her to ensure the Pakistani Taliban is included on the list.
“The Pakistani Taliban is a murderous organization dedicated to killing civilians, harming US interests in the region and has even taken credit for terrorist acts committed on US soil,” senators Charles Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, Kay Hagan, Kirsten Gillibrand and Robert Menendez wrote.
They said the group has committed atrocities aimed at NGO workers, government officials and civilians. Putting TTP on the list would help curtail support for its activities and pressure others to stop logistical, financial and political support for it, they said.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley repeated on Tuesday that Washington was satisfied with Islamabad’s cooperation on the investigation into the Pakistani Taliban’s possible involvement in the plot.
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