Masood Azhar, other top militants bank accounts seized in Pakistan
Islamabad : The bank account of 5,100 militants and suspects, including Masood Azhar (prime suspect in Pathankot air base attack), have been frozen by the Pakistani authorities on Monday.
Amid continuous demands from of India over action against Masood Azhar, he has been kept currently under "protective custody" in Islamabad.
"Following a request of the Ministry of Interior, we have frozen accounts of all top suspected terrorists, including Masood Azhar, son of Allah Bux," said a senior official of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) who is part of a team monitoring the progress pertaining to this matter.
The interior ministry sent three different lists of thousands of suspects, including kingpins of some proscribed organisations, The News quoted the official as saying.
According to the report by the paper, nearly 1,200 accounts have been frozen by the SBP which were listed in category 'A' of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
Category A defines the militants who are on the exceptional risk or high risk.
Masood Azhar’s name falls in list A of the militant suspects whose accounts have been frozen by the bank.
"Azhar's name was listed in category 'A' of the 4th Schedule," the paper quoted officials as saying.
"It happened since the government put the JeM chief under 'protective custody' of security agencies after terrorists attacked the Pathankot Airbase," the officials said.
In February, India had demanded stringent action in United Nation against the terrorist Masood Azhar, who had allegedly carried out attack in Pathankot air base in January.
The National Counterterrorism Authority (Nacta) sent around 5,500 names to the SBP earlier this month, they said.
National Coordinator Nacta Ihsan Ghani confirmed that over 5,000 accounts of suspects have been frozen by the SBP.
"More than 3,078 accounts of suspects whose accounts were frozen belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, 1,443 from Punjab, 226 from Sindh, 193 from Balochistan, 106 from Gilgit-Baltistan and 27 from the Islamabad Capital Territory," the paper said, adding that 26 suspects belonged to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
