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The Trump administration's review of the U.S. policy in Afghanistan is taking "longer than originally announced and intended," the former U.S. envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan told VOA, although that could be due to the complexity of the issue."There ...

WASHINGTON � Pakistan's restive northwest province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has issued directives to its administrative and security departments to make serious efforts to cut off the money supply of banned terror groups.

The provincial departments have been instructed to devise a strategy to crack down and to closely monitor the proscribed groups and individuals involved in raising funds illegally for welfare or religious purposes, Pakistani media reported.

Despite its continued efforts against terrorism, terror financing remains a challenge for Pakistan due to political resistance, sympathizers and money trails that are hard to track, analysts say.

Pakistan will have to come up with a strategy to freeze assets of terror groups, make it difficult for terrorists to gather funds, but to also spot those who've adopted new identities and have re-established their networks, A. Z. Hilali, head of political science department at the Peshawar University told VOA.

Suspect groups identified

The official document circulated by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's government emphasized banned groups are not allowed to gather money under any circumstances and security forces and the administration should ensure people and groups raising money for mosques, charity or madrassas (religious seminaries) are lawfully doing so.

In 2015, Pakistan banned around 200 terror groups after establishing their involvement in sectarian and terrorism related activities against the state.

Pakistan had also frozen around $3 million worth of assets of 5,000 suspected terrorists last year. "We will make every possible effort to implement National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terror financing in our province, Shaukat Yousafzai, spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government told VOA.

"We're the biggest victim of terrorism and we do not want them [terrorists] to succeed. We'll also work to start awareness programs so that banned groups can be prohibited from gathering funds from the masses, Yousafzai said.

A report issued by the Financial Monitoring Unit of Pakistan in March estimated the annual operational budget of terrorist organizations is $48,000 to $240,000.

The terror groups in Pakistan generate hefty amounts through charity and welfare work, receive huge foreign donations and use the "hawala system," an alternative finance system, used for money laundering, experts say.

National plan

Pakistan's National Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy aimed at eliminating extremism mentions the state should choke financing for terrorist and terrorist organizations.

Hilali says there is a need to introduce legislation to prohibit collection of funds from the general public. Terrorists collect large sums of money especially during the holy month of Ramadan under the guise of Zakat [mandatory Islamic charity].

The madrassas [religious seminaries] also play an important role and we are aware that a few of them remained involved in collecting funds on behalf of banned terror outfits in the past, Hilali added.

Security analysts also stress that the government should regulate and register all the religious seminaries across the country and should practice caution before making donations to religious organizations and seminaries.

In 2016, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's government received scathing criticism when it allocated a grant of $3 million to Darul Uloom Haqqania, a religious seminary that is interpreted by some critics as the University of Jihad.

The Haqqani network, considered a terrorist group by Afghanistan and the United States, continues to fight Afghan and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of providing support to the Haqqani network. The U.S. State Department released its annual Country Report on Terrorism 2016 earlier this month. It criticized Pakistan and said it remained unsuccessful in stopping the activities of the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON � A top technology aide to Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives was arrested Monday at a Washington airport while attempting to leave the United States for Pakistan.

Imran Awan, an IT aide who worked for the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and several other congressional Democrats, was arrested on fraud charges related to a housing loan he received.

Awan and his wife, Hina Alvi, who also worked as a technology aide for Democrats, requested and received a home loan from Congressional Federal Credit Union (CFCU) for $165,000 under the pretense that the couple would occupy the home, according to Awan's arrest warrant. The couple didn't occupy the house, but instead rented out the property to tenants, in violation of their loan agreement.

Within a week of accepting the loan money on January 12, 2017, Alvi requested a wire transfer form from the CFCU branch located within the U.S. Capitol in the amount of $283,000 to be sent to two individuals in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

According to the arrest warrant, a representative from the bank called Alvi on January 18, 2017, to confirm the purpose of the outgoing wire transfer.

The person answering the call, who was a male, pretended that he was Alvi, the arrest warrant says.

While on the call, the bank representative asked the purpose of the wire transfer, to which the male pretending to be Alvi responded that it was to be used for funeral arrangements. The bank representative informed the man that funeral arrangements wouldn't necessarily qualify as an acceptable reason for the wire.

After a long pause, the male said that the reason for the wire was 'buying property', and the representative accepted that reasoning before initiating the wire transfer to Pakistan, the warrant says.

Bank records showed that $165,000.00 of $283,000.00 wired to Pakistan came from the illicit home loan.

A little more than a month after wiring the money to Pakistan, Alvi and her three children boarded a plane to Pakistan and never returned to the U.S.

According to the arrest warrant, the children were abruptly taken out of school without notifying their teachers, and investigators do not believe that Alvi has any intention to return to the United States.

Awan purchased a ticket for a flight departing from Washington to Pakistan Monday night, but was arrested at the airport by federal agents prior to boarding.

Awan pleaded not guilty to the bank fraud charge Tuesday during an arraignment in federal court in Washington. He was released but was forced to turn over all his passports and wear a GPS monitoring device.

Chris Gowen, Awan's attorney, told Politico the arrest is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney's Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim."

"A quick glance at what the government filed in court today confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client, he said.

In March, a group of House Democrats fired Awan and Alvi after they allegedly stole IT equipment from congressional members and may have exposed House information online. The couple had been barred from accessing House computer networks since early February.

Two of Awan's relatives, Abid Awan and Jamal Awan also worked as IT aides for Democrats, and are linked to the criminal investigation.

Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign as chairwoman of the DNC last year after emails released by WikiLeaks appeared to show the organization working to unfairly support Hillary Clinton over her former rival Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary process.

Awan and his relatives began working for congressional Democrats more than a decade ago, and records show Awan made nearly $2 million since starting IT work on Capitol Hill in 2004. His wife, Alvi, who started working for Democrats in 2007, earned more than $1.3 million during that time.

The two were considered shared employees, which means they worked for dozens of Democrats at the same time, and no one member paid their entire salaries.

Source: Voice of America

ISLAMABAD � A prominent former Afghan insurgent leader Tuesday said 30,000 of his countrymen are fighting in Syria and Iraq.

"Afghans are being trained to fight at home and abroad, said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, while addressing tribal elders in Kabul.

The controversial warlord's Hizb-e-Islami faction recently concluded a peace deal with the Afghan government to end insurgent activities and pave the way for Hekmatyar to come out of years of hiding.

Hekmatyar would not discuss the source of his information on the number of Afghans fighting abroad, but suggested they are doing so only to feed their poverty-stricken families.

Today, you have 30,000 Afghans fighting in Iraq and Syria. God knows better how many of them have been killed, Hekmatyar said.

Decades of conflict and poverty have forced Afghans to abandon their country and travel across the globe in search of livelihood.

Millions of Afghans continue to live in neighboring Pakistan and Iran while conflict continues to uproot thousands in Afghanistan.

Lately, some displaced families have found the battlefields in Syria and Iraq as a source of income because of Iran.

Iran

Some refugees in Iran, mainly Shi'ite Hazara Afghans, are reportedly being recruited and trained to fight alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria. An estimated 3 million Afghans are in Iran, including about 2 million undocumented refugees.

According to media reports, it is the undocumented refugees whom Iran's Revolutionary Guards exploit and recruit to raise militias fighting in Syria. Reports also say that in return, the volunteers' displaced families are offered legal status in addition to getting hundreds of dollars in monthly salaries. The potential fighters are told they are being sent on a sacred mission of defending holy shrines and Islam.

During parliamentary sessions, Afghan lawmakers have repeatedly urged their government to take up the issue with Iran to stop the exploitation of refugees. Government officials rarely comment on the issue and maintain that Kabul is in contact with Tehran.

Source: Voice of America

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