Washington

A member of the US Congress, Scott Perry has asked President Joe Biden to reject the approval of the known terrorist supporter Masood Khan as Pakistan’s ambassador to the country. The home department has put the approval of Khan’s appointment on hold for the time being.

In his letter to President Joe Biden, Perry has expressed his grave concern about “Imran Khan’s nomination of a bona fide terrorist sympathizer working to undermine our interests in the region – as well as the security of our Indian allies.”

He said Imran Khan’s decision on Khan “can only be described as a breathtaking lack of judgment at best, and a demonstration of Islamabad’s unmitigated contempt for the United States at worst.”

He said Masood Khan had praised terrorists including Hizbul Mujahideen in stark and unsettling terms. “He has encouraged young men to emulate jihadists like Burhan Wani.” Wani, a member of the Hizbul Mujahideen was killed by the security forces in Kashmir in 2016.

Perry said in 2017, Khan had lashed out at the United States for designating the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen for sanctions, and called sanctions “unjustifiable”.

In 2019, Khan willingly appeared alongside Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), founder of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), a US-designated foreign terrorist organization.

Khalil’s SDGT designation was justified by the Treasury Department in 2014 due to his “close relationship with al-Qaida, including with Osama Bin Laden prior to his death. Khalil was a key member of UBL’s International Islamic Front and a cosignatory of UBL’s first fatwa, issued in 1998, calling for attacks against the United States.”

The letter states “A litany of examples accompanies Mr. Khan’s perverse attachment to Islamic terrorism, which makes it exceedingly obvious that Pakistan has embraced its identity as a super terrorist state.

“We know, for instance, that the Ambassador-designate is a supporter of the terrorist groups Jamaat-e-Islami, a group that assisted in committing genocide in the early 1970s, as well as Helping Hand for Relief and Development, a group that had no qualms establishing a partnership with the foreign terrorist organization responsible for the brutal murder of 166 people during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks (Lashkar-e-Taiba).”

Perry said, “This unscrupulous individual also called on the United States to free the would-be mass murderer Aafia Siddiqui.”

Siddiqui is serving a long jail term for attempting to murder American troops and the jihadists have regularly clamoured for her release.

“While I am encouraged that the State Department has reportedly placed a pause on approving Masood Khan as the new Ambassador from Pakistan, a pause is not enough. I urge you to reject any diplomatic credentials presented to you by Masood Khan and reject any effort by the Government of Pakistan to install this jihadist as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States.”