Chennai: The US blocked $63 million in funds of designated terrorist groups, including Pakistan-based outfits, in 2019 as part of its crackdown on foreign terrorist organisations, according to an annual report by the treasury department.
The report released by the US Department of Treasury on Thursday states the US blocked $342,000 in funds of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), $1,725 of the Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM) and $45,798 of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen-al-Islami.
All the three groups are Pakistan-based terror outfits. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen-al-Islami is a Islamic jihad group operating primarily in Kashmir.
Another Pakistan-based Kashmir centric terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen has $4,321 blocked by the US in 2019 as against $2,287 the previous year, the report said.
For the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, the US blocked $5,067 in 2019 as against a paltry $318 in 2018.
The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is the leading US Government agency responsible for implementing sanctions against the assets of international terrorist organisations and terrorism-supporting countries.
The federal body implements these sanctions as part of its general mission to administer and enforce economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals.
According to the report, in 2019 the US blocked $63 million in funds of nearly 70 designated terrorist organisations, with the highest being $3.9 million of the al-Qaeda group. While the total blocked funds in 2018 was $46 million, that of the al-Qaeda was $6.4 million that year
The list includes the Haqqani network ($26,546). It is a significant increase from $3,626 in 2018.