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35 killed, over 100 injured as militants storm police training centre in Quetta

At least 35 security personnel were martyred, and over 100 others injured as terrorists stormed a police training centre on the edge of the provincial capital late Monday night.

Three terrorists opened entered the New Sariab Police Training College, some 13 kilometres away from Quetta city. The terrorists headed straight for the hostel where around 250 police recruits were sleeping.

Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti told reporters assembled at the
site early Tuesday that the sprawling compound had been attacked by three militants equipped with suicide jackets, revising down an earlier estimate of “five to six” assailants.

“They first targeted the watch tower sentry, and after exchanging fire killed him and were able to enter the academy grounds,” he said. “At least 20 were killed but this figure isn’t final – we’ll confirm it in the morning,” he said, putting the provisional number of injured at 65.

He added, “Frontier Corps’ Quick Responce Force (QRF) wing responded along with Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) and [Pakistan Army’s] Light Commando Battallion…one terrorist was killed while two of them exploded”.
Terrorists belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Major General Sher Afgan, chief of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Balochistan, which led the counter-operation, said “the attack was over in around three hours after we arrived.”

He added that the militants belonged to the Al-Alimi faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group – which is affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban. “They were in communication with operatives in Afghanistan,” he said. The group itself has not claimed the attack.

Bugti said the compound was housing some 700 recruits at the time of the attack, hundreds of whom were rescued.
The area was plunged into darkness when the counter-offensive was launched, while security personnel created a cordon and ambulances zoomed in and out, taking the injured to hospitals. Military helicopters circled overhead.
Two FC personnel gunned down in Quetta

Bugti said the law enforcers cleared the operation within four hours, adding that “99% the operation is complete but the forces will remain in the centre till daylight”.

The training college is situated on Sariab Road, one of the most sensitive areas of Quetta. While militants have been targeting security forces in the area for almost a decade, the training college has come under attack in 2006 and 2008.

The casualties were driven to different hospitals of the city where a state of emergency was declared. Provincial authorities, in the meantime, also made arrangements to fly those with critical wounds to hospitals in Karachi.
Chief Minister Nawab Sanaullah Zehri said that the terrorists attacked the police centre, which is located on the edge of Quetta, after they failed to hit a target in the provincial capital where security was on high alert following intelligence information about a possible attack three or four days back.

The attack came a day after separatist gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead two coast guards and a civilian and wounded a shopkeeper in Gwadar.

In August, a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital claimed by the Islamic State group and the Jamaatul Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban killed 73 people, including many of the city’s lawyer community who had gone there to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague.

Balochistan is also a key region for China’s ambitious $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project linking its western province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan.

Pakistan blames India for fuelling terrorism in Balochistan in an attempt to sabotage CPEC. A senior officer of Indian navy, Kulbushan Yadav, was arrested from Balochistan earlier this year.

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Women’s Action Forum shocked by brutal murders of 3 girls

PESHAWAR, Oct 21: The Women Action Forum (WAF) has expressed deep concern over the recent killing of three young women, whose charred bodies were found in the provincial metropolis, and the attempts to influence the investigation into the gory incident.

A press release issued here on Friday said the incident had shocked all and sundry as the burnt-down bodies of the women, stated to be between 18 to 24 years of age, were found dumped in Chan Mari locality of Tehkal area of the Peshawar district.

The WAF stated that it was matter of anguish that even in the 21st century the detestable crimes of killing of women and burning their bodies were taking place.

The women rights group believed nobody could have dared to resort to such a gruesome act had those who committed similar crimes in the past been brought to justice.

The WAF voiced anger at the reports being spread by some unscrupulous elements in a section of the media who were casting aspersions on the character of the murdered women to influence the police investigation as nobody was there to defend the victims.

The women rights group called for a fair and speedy probe into the brutal murder of three women by tracing the culprits and have them punished. “Attempts to mislead the public and investigators will not work. Justice should be done in this case. Crimes against women cannot be condoned under any garb,” concluded the WAF statement

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Institutionalizing the Equality of Citizens

This September, the speaker of the National Assembly accepted two bills on issues of grave concern for religious minorities, which parliament may consider voting into laws. One is about establishing a “Pakistan Minority Rights Commission” and the other “Protection of Minorities Bill 2016” is about making forced conversion an offence.

The bill for constituting the Commission encompasses the needs of an independent, empowered and a delivering human rights institution. For example, it envisions a body of 11 members, with a combination of religious, ethnic, gender and age diversity, though most importantly it does not exclude the representation from the majority community. Because, after all, the object is integration of the citizenry beyond religious divides. Besides being representative, the Commission ought to be an effective body to curtail human rights abuses; a question which runs through the entire scheme of the bill, not merely its composition.

In the course of debate one expects that the parliamentarians and the civil society will be mindful to address any shortcomings and to make the bill worthy of laying the foundation of this long-awaited institution. For instance, section 25 of the bill places one-year limit on the purposed commission for pointing out difficulties that needs to be removed for discharge of their functions towards the stated objectives. A sunset clause can be a hindrance to the procedural powers of an evolving institution, expected to expand the scope of respect for human rights in a challenging environment. Hence such limits ought to be removed. It is also suggested that the realising equality of rights among citizens needs a mention among the objects of the Commission.

The bill addressing the forced conversions is a well articulated draft. Take section 4 for instance that states, “a minor who claims change of his religion before attaining the age of maturity (18 years) shall not be deemed to have changed his religion and no action shall be taken against him for any such claim or action made by such minor.” The section fulfils the requirements of two basic standards of international law; the freedom of religion and belief and; the best interest of the child in two sentences though with a margin of appreciation for ground realities.

Drafters seem to be fully aware that a number of reported cases of forced conversions involved minors, usually female who were abducted, raped and reported to have contracted marriage, finally driven into forced servitude. Moreover, there is a looming threat of being charged with apostasy in case a forcibly converted person objects to his or her victimisation. Such violations involving abuse of religion feed into social processes the larger scheme of religious extremism and exclusion of minorities. The bill therefore is a welcome development.

The anti-forced conversion laws of Sri Lanka and a few states of India were driven by majority communities’ fear of losing members to growing minority faiths. Pakistan faces no such danger. The demographic picture of Pakistan suggests a need to preserve its diminishing religious minorities.

The mover of the bills, Sanjay Pervani, and his legal experts deserve praise for their hard work, as well as a nuanced understanding of domestic issues, international and domestic laws.

This February, when the Human Rights Action Plan was unveiled, the federal government had pledged to move legislation for establishing a National Commission for Minorities. In fact, the government was already in defiance of the Supreme Court’s order given in June 2014, to form a council which could monitor realisation of the rights of religious minorities and policy formation.

Now that the opposition has shared its burden, the government must seize this opportunity for an early approval of this bill. Pakistan is already behind countries of comparable clout in the Asian region, whereas human rights institutions have demonstrated an enormous potential in helping the countries in transition or in socio-political transformations.

Despite all difficulties, the National and Provincial Commissions on Status of Women and Commissions on Right to Information made important strides in their respective areas in the recent past. The institutionalisation of minorities’ rights will not only rehabilitate minorities as equals but it can also treat the existing imbalance and discrimination on the basis of religion. The next step will be apt and timely appointments, which has been a challenge, not attributable to a lack of competent human resource though.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2016

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Salvaging education in Sindh

A chronically ailing education sector in Sindh has prompted a belated emergency by the incumbent chief minister. Before enduring this inexorable rot during the recent decades, Sindh was the torch-bearer of education in the country. Decay of education indicators in Sindh coincided with an overall failure of education sector in the country.

Although no province has shown enviable performance in the education sector, the pace and magnitude of decline is mind-boggling in Sindh.

It is widely believed that education in Sindh was subjected to a systematic degeneration since the Zia-regime. Following the footprints of the martial law regime, successive governments converted education department into a graveyard of talent by wholesale recruitment of incompetent teachers and officers.

Being the largest source of public sector employment, the department became a perennial stream to quench the thirst of nepotism and corruption of every government. Competent and dedicated teaching and non-teaching staff was gradually replaced by flocks of meritless personnel, resulting in a nosedive of education standards and key performance indicators. A pernicious corrosion of education over the years eventually became too conspicuous to ignore.

More recently, a series of reports issued by independent think-tanks and research bodies have referred to a distressing state of education in the province.

A recent study by Bengali and Durrani (2014) states that there were over 13 million eligible children (age group 5-15) in Sindh out of which around 4 million (30 per cent) are in the public education system, about 2.5 million (19 per cent) are in private schools and the rest (51 per cent) are out of school. The public sector enrollment dropped from 4.4 million in 2010-11 to 4.2 million in 2012-13. According to UNESCO, 2.8 million children (5-9 years) in Sindh are out of school. Nearly 38 per cent of those who get enrolled in schools do not continue education beyond grade 6 and those who are lucky enough to stay in schools do not perform well enough to show optimal learning outcome. This leads to a low literacy rate and eventually an inferior quality human resource in the province.
A district education ranking conducted by Alif Ailaan in 2014 depicts a dismal situation of education in Sindh. The report notes that of the total 12 million children between the age of 5 and 16 years, more than half i.e. 6.1 million are out of school in Sindh. These include 3.5 million (i.e. 56 per cent) girls. The report reveals that Sindh’s children score poorly in reading and mathematics compared to rest of the country. 59 per cent students in grade-5 couldn’t fluently read Sindhi or Urdu, 75 per cent couldn’t read a sentence in English fluently and 71 per cent couldn’t do simple two digits division.

According to overall district ranking, no district from Sindh found place in top 50 districts of the country, whereas Balochistan had three districts in the list. In the ranking of primary schools, Karachi was the only district of Sindh that appears among the top 50 districts, whereas Balochistan had three districts in the list. Likewise in the middle schools ranking, Hyderabad was the only district of Sindh among the top 50, compared to four districts of Balochistan.

Similarly, Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)-2013 made startling revelations on plummeting quality of education in Sindh. On certain accounts, even FATA outshined rural Sindh. According to the report 67 per cent of grade-3 children could not read sentences in Urdu/Sindhi compared to 64 per cent in FATA who could not read sentences in Urdu/Pashto. Similarly, 43 per cent of grade-1 children could not read letters in Urdu/Sindhi as compared to much lesser 23 per cent in FATA. In mathematics, only 29 per cent children enrolled in grade 5 in rural Sindh could perform two digit division compared to 37 per cent in FATA.

The situation exacerbated in 2016 when under the ranking on primary education, the first district of Sindh Karachi appeared on the 43rd rung outperformed even by Layyah district of south Punjab which has otherwise very low human development indicators.

All these figures are only a tip of the iceberg. Having five to seven thousand ghost schools and countless absentee teachers is a unique ignominy earned by the province. A former provincial minister of education belonging to the ruling party has been accused of a record breaking 23,000 irregular appointments in the department dwarfing all past records of corruption. The party leadership never expressed any remorse on this faux pas of its senior minister. This pitiable state of education in Sindh has surfaced in tandem with a pronounced comprehensive governance failure in the province. Pervasive corruption and nepotism in the province became a breeding ground for all ills in the education department.

Against this backdrop, declaring an education-emergency is a cogent initiative if it is not a perfunctory announcement for media consumption only. The announcement ensued by administrative restructuring of the department. Education emergency, however, entails a broader spectrum of actions leading towards a comprehensive makeover of the system. Saving it from becoming an optical illusion, the emergency should unfurl a clear strategic direction and a set of integrated targets to bring a radical shift in the overall governance of the department. A strong and sincere but disjointed and impulsive administrative action will bring little change.

A fundamental shift is required in the practices in vogue. While an administrative overhaul, new infrastructure, database, free books and scholarships are of immense significance, the teacher is the lynchpin of the education system. A merit-based and transparent recruitment of teachers would help reversing the rot. Distributing teachers’ jobs as bribery to political loyalists had been the root cause of the damage.

In the old good days, a competent and responsible teacher was the cornerstone of a performing education system. Schools deprived of basic infrastructure and modern-day facilities produced legions of best brains mainly because of zealous teachers. Teachers’ recruitment has remained a lucrative trade for political leadership, bureaucrats and their cronies in Sindh. No emergency will bring fruition until teachers’ recruitment process is liberated from clutches of the influential people within and outside the government.

Next, even if all teachers are miraculously recruited on merit, the quality of more than 145,000 existing school teachers will remain a riddle to resolve. It will be a Herculean task to enhance capacity of all these teachers. The department should contemplate a 5-7 years plan to work synchronously on capacity enhancement of the existing teaching staff. It is easy said than done but emergency is all about conquering unchartered territories.

Teachers’ training of this scale will require a meticulous planning, injection of resources and well-defined outcomes. The third cardinal element is presence of the teachers in classrooms. Some recently taken measures have yielded some results and the teachers’ absenteeism is being checked. Consistent technological surveillance and community mobilisatoin can bring teachers to their schools.

The education department itself requires a purge of unscrupulous elements. Unfettered corruption has become a norm in the department that guzzles more than 20 per cent of the annual budget of the province. The department’s bureaucracy in cahoots with the treasury has invented marvels of innovation to siphon off large sums of money. They have perfected the art of tempering with documents to devour money without leaving a paper trail. Nevertheless, employing technology and strict monitoring can reduce rampant corruption in the department.

More than six millions out-of-school children (compared to currently enrolled four million) and minimising their dropout is a strenuous challenge. Deficit of public sector facilities is being exploited by an under-regulated money-minting private school system. A major reason of this colossal number of out-of-school children is lack of access to affordable education. The problem is even graver for girls whose access is further circumscribed by social barriers. Brining all these children to schools requires a rational planning and not just emotional slogans and impromptu announcements.

Enormity of the challenge demands consistent political commitment and a serious planning. No government alone can bridge this yawning deficit of services. The government of Sindh should engage all concerned stakeholders to develop a roadmap and a congruent institutional mechanism to convert the lofty slogan of emergency into credible action.

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Rangers arrest MQM London leaders Dr Hasan Zafar Arif and Khalid Younus

Sindh Rangers on Saturday took Professor Dr Hasan Zafar Arif and Kunwar Khalid Yunus of the London-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement into custody from outside the Karachi Press Club, where they were due to address a press conference.

Before MQM London leaders arrived at the press club’s premises, large number of Rangers personnel had taken positions in the surrounding area and were checking the vehicles that were passing by.
Dr Arif was taken into custody before he could enter the press club. He was taken in a Rangers mobile van to an undisclosed location.

Kunwar Khalid Yunus was also taken into custody on his way to Karachi Press Club and shifted to an undisclosed location.

Following the arrests of the leaders, the London-based party decided to cancel the press conference.
In a tweet, MQM London’s Wasay Jalil said coordination committee members Dr. Arif and Kunwar Khalid Yunus were detained by members of the paramilitary force.

Both arrested are members of the new coordination committee which was constituted by the London-based MQM.
Later in the evening, Rangers also arrested newly joined MQM London leader Amjad Ullah from outside Karachi Press Club.

The 12-member interim coordination committee was formed by MQM’s London-based leadership in an attempt to regain organisational control of the party which it almost lost following the August 22 incendiary speech of party founder Altaf Hussain.

Dr Arif had recently joined the party along with four other members — Advocate Ishaq, former president of the National Students Federation Momin Khan Momin, Amjadullah Khan and Advocate Idrees Alvi — of the new coordination committee. He is a former faculty member of Karachi University’s philosophy department.

Today’s development comes a week after he addressed a press conference at the Karachi Press Club during which he demanded that the ongoing “anti-MQM” operation be called off forthwith.

The Oct 15 press conference was the first show of strength by Altaf Hussain against Dr Farooq Sattar-led MQM-Pakistan, which had sidelined and disowned him following his Aug 22 speech.

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Taliban envoys travel to Pakistan to discuss Afghanistan peace talks

Islamabad, Oct 21 – Senior members of the Taliban’s political commission based in Qatar have travelled to Pakistan for discussions with security officials there about possible peace talks with the Afghan government.

The development follows the revelation this week that Taliban officials held two rounds of secret talks with Afghanistan’s spy chief and a senior US diplomat in the capital of the Gulf state, Doha, this month and last month – meetings Pakistan was excluded from despite its long association with the Islamist movement.

Two sources within the insurgency told the Guardian that a trio of Taliban diplomats left Doha on Wednesday with a mission to hold talks with Pakistani officials.

“The visiting Afghan Taliban delegation will discuss various topics, including peace talks, and share the latest information with Pakistan,” a senior official told the Guardian.

The men are Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, a former ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Jan Muhammad Madani, a former foreign minister under the Taliban regime in the 1990s, and Mullah Abdul Salam, a former deputy education minister.

The Taliban official said the discussions being held in Pakistan follow successful contacts made with both Afghan and US officials in recent months.

“Taliban and the Americans have been engaged in a number of rounds of talks in Qatar,” he said. “They have made some progress, on a very zigzag path. God willing, we hope further talks will create progress.”

Last year Pakistan succeeded in establishing itself as the host and broker of an effort to end the 15-year insurgency in Afghanistan. Islamabad managed to bring Taliban, US and Chinese diplomats around the same table at a breakthrough meeting in the Pakistani hill resort of Murree in July 2015.

But a scheduled second meeting never took place after the Afghan government confirmed that the former Taliban leader Mullah Omar had died years previously and that the movement had been run in his name by Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.

After a bitter leadership fight, Mansoor formally became the Taliban leader but showed little interest in re-engaging in the Pakistan-brokered process.

Mansoor was killed by a US drone strike in May, creating further uncertainty about the chances of peace talks.
Although Pakistan has been a key ally for the Taliban during both its rise to power in the 1990s and its re-emergence as an anti-Nato insurgency after 2001, some within the movement resent Pakistani interference in the Taliban’s affairs.

A Taliban official who talked to the Guardian said the group’s current leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, had sought to “speed up” talks with Kabul and the US.

He said: “Pakistan and the rest of the neighbours will be gradually brought on board. Pakistan is an important neighbour and no doubt they will want to be involved.”

But a western official who was aware that at least two of the Taliban envoys had travelled to Pakistan said the envoys’ meeting was unlikely to be related to the recent Doha talks.

The official said it was an attempt by Islamabad to wrest back control and escape “immense US pressure and international isolation”.

“They and a group from Quetta are talking to the Pakistanis about a Pakistan-led process,” the official said. “This is a separate initiative to escape US and Chinese pressure.”

The official said some within the Taliban had objected to the way members of the political commission appear to have been summoned to Islamabad.

The Taliban is split between rival factions, both among and between commanders on the battlefield in Afghanistan and those living inside Pakistan. Bitter divides exist over whether to pursue peace talks or not, as well as over the control of money and resources.

The western official described the current situation within the movement as “chaos as normal”.

Quoting a Taliban official, the Associated Press reported this week that the head of the Doha office had not taken part in the talks with the Afghan government, reflecting “a continuing power struggle within the movement over who should run the Qatar office”.

A Pakistani intelligence official declined to comment on the latest claims.

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Two Chinese engineers killed in mine accident in Pakistan

Islamabad, Oct 21: Bodies of two Chinese engineers, who were killed after being trapped in a lead and zinc mine in southwestern province of Balochistan, have been retrieved by rescuers, nearly a month after the accident.

The Chinese were employed at the MMC Huaye Dudder Mining Company in Dudder area of Lasbela district in southwestern province of Balochistan.

The bodies of both Chinese engineers were pulled out late on Wednesday night, according to an official of the company.

Officials said that a Pakistani worker was also trapped in the mine and rescuers are yet to find his body.

Chinese are working in different projects in Pakistan under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

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Govt Removes Cyril Almeida’s Name from ECL

The government on Friday removed the name of Dawn staffer Cyril Almeida from the Exit Control List (ECL), confirmed a notification issued from the Ministry of Interior.

Earlier today, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan assured the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) that Dawn staffer Cyril Almeida’s name would be removed from the ECL.
The interior minister provided the assurance during a meeting with APNS and CPNE officials in Islamabad.

However, he told participants that removal of the name would in no way affect the ongoing inquiry into the the matter and the inquiry would continue till its logical conclusion.

The interior minister reiterated during the meeting that the independent media must play its role not only towards safeguarding national interests and security but also counter negative propaganda by enemies of the state.

Almeida’s name was added to the Exit Control List – preventing travel abroad – on Monday after he wrote the news report “Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military”. The Prime Minister’s Office rejected the story thrice since it was published on October 6.

In an Editor’s note, Dawn clarified its position and stated on the record that the story “was verified, cross-checked and fact-checked.”

The note further stated that “Many at the helm of affairs are aware of the senior officials, and participants of the meeting who were contacted by the newspaper for collecting information. Therefore, the elected government and state institutions should refrain from targeting the messenger, and scape-goating the country’s most respected newspaper in a malicious campaign.”

In the wake of the travel ban on Almeida, human rights and journalists’ organisations including the HRCP, PFUJ and CPNE protested and rallied in his support. Most TV news channels also ran reports and conducted programs criticising the government’s decision.

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Corps commanders view leak from high-level meeting as breach of national security: ISPR

Participants of a Corps Commanders meeting at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Friday expressed serious concern over what they said was a leak from a security meeting which was reported by Dawn earlier this month.

In a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), participants of the meeting expressed serious concern over “feeding of false and fabricated story of an important security meeting held at PM House and viewed it as breach of national security.”

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif presided over the meeting which was attended by all corps commanders and principal staff officers.

Almeida’s name was added to the Exit Control List – preventing travel abroad – on Monday after he wrote the news report “Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military”. The Prime Minister Office rejected the story thrice since it was published on October 6.

In an Editor’s note, Dawn clarified its position and stated on the record that the story “was verified, cross-checked and fact-checked.”

The note further stated: “Many at the helm of affairs are aware of the senior officials, and participants of the meeting who were contacted by the newspaper for collecting information. Therefore, the elected government and state institutions should refrain from targeting the messenger, and scape-goating the country’s most respected newspaper in a malicious campaign.”

In the wake of the travel ban on Almeida, human rights and journalists’ organisations including the HRCP, PFUJ and CPNE protested and rallied in his support. Most TV news channels also ran reports and conducted programmes criticising the government’s decision.

The participants held a comprehensive review of the internal and external security situation with a particular focus on prevailing environment at the Line of Control (LoC) and the operational preparedness of the Pakistan Army.

Participants rejected the Indian claims of ‘hoax’ surgical strikes as an attempt to divert the world’s attention away from brutalities being committed by the Indian Army against Kashmiris in held Kashmir, ISPR said.

The forum resolved that any attempt of misadventurism and irresponsible act will be met with the most befitting response.
While expressing complete satisfaction over the operational preparedness of troops, the COAS reiterated the army’s resolve to defend Pakistan against a full spectrum of threat.

Recounting the successes of Operation Zarb-i-Azb and the resultant stability achieved, the COAS reiterated the need for sustained efforts on internal security to defeat all hostile attempts to reverse gains made.

The participants resolved to continue sustained and focused combing and intelligence-based operations across the length and breadth of the country to uproot terrorism, harmonising it with implementation of the National Action Plan to address extremism and other causes of terrorism, the ISPR said.

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U.S. blacklists Pakistan nationals on suspicion of money laundering

The United States blacklisted four men and their companies based in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, for purported ties to an organisation accused of laundering money for drug traffickers and Chinese, Colombian and Mexican crime groups.

Among them was Pakistani national Obaid Khanani, whose father Altaf Khanani was arrested by U.S. authorities in September 2015 and accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of laundering billions of dollars for the Taliban and other groups.
The department said in a statement that Obaid Khanani, 29, continued to help lead his father’s money laundering organization after the arrest. Altaf Khanani is set to be tried on money laundering charges in Miami this month, according to federal court records.

Another man on the list, Hozaifa Khanani, also 29, is Altaf Khanani’s nephew and was involved in real estate investments on behalf of his uncle’s organization, the Treasury Department said. Muhammad Javed Khanani, Altaf Khanani’s brother, was “heavily involved in laundering criminal proceeds via money service businesses” Treasury said. It said a fourth man, Atif Polani, helped move funds on behalf of Khanani’s organization.

The sanctions block any assets the men or companies might have had in the United States, and bars Americans from dealing with them.

“Treasury remains committed to combating illicit money laundering networks around the world and today’s action is the result of close coordination with our partners in the United Arab Emirates,” said John E. Smith, acting director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which imposes sanctions.

The department also blacklisted several businesses based in Pakistan and Dubai for either being owned by the men or being linked to money laundering.

(Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Joel Schectman; editing by Grant McCool)