After Promising to Crack Down on Terror, Imran Khan Inducts US-Designated Terrorist Into Party

The announcement was made by a senior PTI leader Asad Umar on Facebook, who said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, along with several of his supporters have pledged their support to Imran Khan.

Updated on: March 7, 2019, 11:09 AM IST

New Delhi: Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a US-designated terrorist and founder of the terrorist organisation Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), joined Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday. 

The announcement was made by a senior PTI leader Asad Umar on Facebook, who said that Khalil, along with several of his supporters have pledged their support to the Pakistan PM. 

Khalil’s entry into the party comes at a time when Pakistan has called for a shut-down of offices and institutions run by the terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa. He has been a strong supporter of Imran Khan and advocated for his candidature as the Prime Minister of the country last year. 

Pakistan government’s welcome to Khalil, an internationally recognized terrorist to the party, has raised questions over Imran Khan’s claims that his government has launched a crackdown on terror outfits and leaders thriving on Pakistani soil.

Khalil’s organization HuM, is said to have been in direct contact with Osama Bin Laden and his family when he was in Abbottabad and has been on the US State department’s foreign terrorist organization list since 1997. 

In August 2014, the department altered it to include Ansar-ul-Umma, HuM’s alias and further publicly announced that the organization was also funding terror activities in Afghanistan.

HuM has been involved in various terror attacks in the region, including the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.