United Nations: The UN Security Council on Friday put the Tehrik-E-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on its international anti-terrorism sanctions list, a move highlighting the terrorist group's growing capacity to strike.
The TTP has been blamed for attacks that have left hundreds dead in Pakistan and also been linked to an attempted bombing in Times Square, New York last year.
The Obama administration claims that Faisal Shahzad, a naturalised US citizen who planted the Times Square car bomb, acknowledged that he was trained in Waziristan, a stronghold for al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban was formally established in 2007 and is headed by Hakimullah Mehsud.
The decision to target the Pakistani Taliban comes at a time when the UN is seeking to encourage the Afghan Taliban to pursue peace talks with the Afghan government, a necessary prelude to a US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The UK welcomed the addition to the sanctions list. "It sends a powerful signal of the international community's solidarity and resolve in the fight against the TTP and international terrorism," said Mark Lyall Grant UK's envoy to the UN.
"It has clear links to al-Qaeda at an operational level. Designating TTP under the sanctions regime will help to reduce its ability to operate effectively and perpetrate terrorist attacks."
The UN anti-terrorism blacklist imposes a set of financial and travel bans that are aimed at restraining extremist capacity to strike.
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