US looking 'very closely' at adding Pak Taliban to foreign terrorist organisations list

Washington, May 12 (ANI): The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is said be behind the failed plot to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, is still not in the American list of foreign terrorist organisations.

The State Department still hasn't decided if the Pakistan Taliban should be labelled as a terrorist organization.

Senator Charles Schumer urged the Obama administration on Tuesday to add the group to the US list of foreign terrorist organizations, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"I was shocked to learn that the group was omitted from the list. They've declared war on the citizens of the United States. We must respond appropriately," said Schumer.

Times Square plot suspect Faisal Shahzad has told investigators that he received bomb-making training from the Taliban in his native Pakistan.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Pakistan Taliban "is a group that we have been focused on for some time, but I think in light of the Times Square attempt, it's something we're looking at very closely."

He said the department was being "intentionally deliberate" in studying whether to add the Pakistan Taliban to its list of foreign terrorist organizations, the paper reports.

Naming the group to the list is more than a symbolic move. It allows the government to bar foreign nationals affiliated with the group from entering the US, and allows the government to seize assets traced to the group.

Most importantly, the designation also allows prosecutors to use an anti-terror statute to criminally charge those who provide support to such groups. That has helped the US crack down on people in the US who send terrorists equipment, money or recruits. (ANI)