Pakistan launches crackdown on UN-listed terror groups

Pakistan on Monday announced the freezing of accounts and seizure of assets linked to organisations banned by the UN Security Council (UNSC).

The move follows weeks of heightened tensions in South Asia after a local youth from India-administered Kashmir carried out a massive suicide bombing killing more than 40 Indian troops on February 14. The attack claimed by Pakistan-based outlawed militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The incident prompted New Delhi to launch air strikes inside Pakistan with Islamabad responding in kind the next day. 

An Indian pilot was shot down inside Pakistan-administered Kashmir in a dogfight with Pakistani aircraft. Islamabad freed the Indian pilot in what Islamabad called a "peace gesture".

Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement that the government had issued the "United Nations Security Council (Freezing and Seizure) Order, 2019".

The objective of the UNSC (Freezing and Seizure) Order 2019 is to streamline the procedure for implementation of Security Council Sanctions against designated individuals and entities, according to the Radio Pakistan.

A key measure of these sanctions regimes is "assets freeze" under which states are required to freeze/seize the assets of designated entities and individuals as soon as they are designated by the relevant UNSC Sanctions Committee.

The United States pressed Pakistan last month to punish those behind the Kashmir attack, with State Department spokesman Robert Palladin o urging "all countries to uphold their responsibilities pursuant to the United Nations Security Council resolutions to deny safe haven and support for terrorists".

Islamabad has banned Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) charity and rescue groups that are considered by the UN to be fronts for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group accused by Washington and New Delhi of carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack, which killed 166 people and brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.