US blacklists Pakistan-based insurgent leader

Published August 6, 2013
The US State Department said that Bahawal Khan runs the Commander Nazir Group, which is named after Mullah Nazir (above) who was killed in a drone strike in January. -AFP/File Photo
The US State Department said that Bahawal Khan runs the Commander Nazir Group, which is named after Mullah Nazir (above) who was killed in a drone strike in January. -AFP/File Photo

WASHINGTON: The US is blacklisting the new leader of a Pakistan-based group that has carried out terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The State Department announced Tuesday that it had added Bahawal Khan's name to its list of specially designated global terrorists.

That step freezes any assets he may have in US jurisdictions and bars Americans from any transactions with him.

The department said that Khan runs the Commander Nazir Group, which has run training camps, dispatched suicide bombers, provided safe haven for al Qaeda fighters and conducted cross-border operations in Afghanistan since 2006.

The group is named after Mullah Nazir, a Taliban member whose faction agreed to a cease-fire with the Pakistan military in 2009 but then broke it in 2011. Nazir was killed in a US drone strike in January.

Nazir was the main militant commander in South Waziristan, part of the northwestern tribal belt considered a base for al Qaeda, the Taliban and other Islamist militants, and a powerful elder in the Wazir tribe.

He, as well as North Waziristan commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, was understood to be close to the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, a faction of the Afghan Taliban blamed for some of the most high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.

Bahawal Khan is reported to be aged 34 and an illiterate former bus driver.

He is a long-time associate of Mullah Nazir. The two men fought together alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan before the 2001 US invasion.

Opinion

Editorial

Afghan turbulence
Updated 19 Mar, 2024

Afghan turbulence

RELATIONS between the newly formed government and Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban rulers have begun on an...
In disarray
19 Mar, 2024

In disarray

IT is clear that there is some bad blood within the PTI’s ranks. Ever since the PTI lost a key battle over ...
Festering wound
19 Mar, 2024

Festering wound

PROTESTS unfolded once more in Gwadar, this time against the alleged enforced disappearances of two young men, who...
Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...