ISLAMABAD: The government has initiated monetary crackdown against over 8,400 individuals who are allegedly a part of terror financing mechanism. This is government’s first firm attempt to track down the channels of money supply to extremists, and block it.
So far government’s top suspects includes a cleric from Islamabad’s Lal Masjidi in relation with Lyari’s top names who are already under National Action Plan’s (NAP) focus.
“Over 8,400 terror suspects are on financial monitoring unit’s radar. We’ve frozen estimated Rs1.2 billion in suspicious funds so far, combined with another move which choked fund supply from 177 religious seminaries.
“All bank accounts of Lal Mosque’s top cleric Maulana Aziz and gangster Shahid Bikiki of Lyari Aman Committee have been frozen. Their travel documents have also been cancelled,” a senior official of the Ministry of Interior revealed.
Further tightening the noose, National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) and Directorate of Passport and Immigration office have seized travel documents of over 3,111 individuals who were marked as terrorism suspects by law enforcement authorities.
Among top prominent terrorists whose accounts have been frozen are: Mati-ur-Rehman of al-Qaeda Pakistan, Mansoor alias Ibrahim alias Chotta of Tehreek-e-Taliban and Qari Ehsan alias Ustad Huzaifa of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). Government has already announced Rs20 million bounty money on their heads.
