US Formalizes Removal of Three Pakistan-Linked Men From Sanctions List

Washington — The United States has formally published the removal of three Pakistan-linked men from its sanctions list, more than two decades after they were designated in cases involving terrorism and narcotics trafficking, according to Treasury Department records.

The three men are Mohammed Tufail, Sher Afghan and Nasir Ali Khan.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control removed them from its sanctions list on July 27 as part of a broader effort to modernize and update its records. The removals were formally published in the Federal Register on Wednesday.

Treasury said the July action removed 84 individuals and entities and updated other entries as part of an effort to keep U.S. sanctions targeted, effective and current.

Those removed included people and entities no longer considered U.S. national security or foreign policy priorities, including deceased individuals, defunct organizations and targets sanctioned more than 20 years ago.

Treasury did not publicly specify which rationale applied to each of the three Pakistan-linked men.

Tufail, also identified as S M Tufail and Sheik Mohammed Tufail, had been designated under U.S. terrorism sanctions.

When his assets were blocked in December 2001, the Treasury Department identified him as an industrialist and one of three key directors of Ummah Tameer-e-Nau, or UTN, an organization founded by Pakistani nuclear scientists.

Treasury said at the time that UTN directors and members had met Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda leaders and Taliban leader Mullah Omar and discussed the development of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Sher Afghan and Nasir Ali Khan were designated under U.S. narcotics sanctions.

Afghan, who was also identified by aliases including Shir Afghan, Mohammad Aziz and Abdullah Khan, was born in Pakistan and added to the sanctions list in June 2001 under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

Khan, who was born in Pakistan in 1955, was also placed under narcotics sanctions in June 2001.

A State Department report on Pakistan’s counter-narcotics efforts in 1996 said the country’s caretaker government had arrested a major trafficker named Nasir Ali Khan who was wanted in the United States on drug charges. The report also said a U.S. extradition request was pending.

The sanctions-removal notice does not explain why each of the three men was taken off the list.

OFAC said the broader modernization effort was intended to remove outdated entries and improve the accuracy of U.S. sanctions lists while ensuring that removals did not undermine national security or foreign policy interests. (Source: IANS)