Pak's eyewash for FATF review: Auctioning properties of ISI's blue-eyed, dead terrorist Mullah Mansour

A Pakistani court has ordered the auction of former Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour's properties, which the dreaded terrorist bought with the support of the country's spy agency, Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). Mansour was smoked out in US drone strike in 2016.

A Pakist court has ordered the auction of former Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour's properties, which the dreaded terrorist bought with the support of the country's spy agency, Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). Mansour was smoked out in US drone strike in 2016.

Pakistan's anti-terrorism court has taken over Mansour's five properties in Karachi, worth over Rs 32 million, which the Taliban leader had purchased 'using fake identities', the Dawn reported quoting sources.

The nexus between ISI and Taliban are well established for years, making Pakistan a safe haven for terrorists.

Last month, Afghstan's intelligence arrested ISI-linked Pakist ISIS terrorist, Abdullah Orakzai alias Aslam Farooqi, the mastermind behind Kabul Gurdwara terror attack in March, which killed 27 people.

Similarly, Mansour was also ISI's trusted man, who enjoyed the spy agency's patronage in amassing properties worth millions.

The revelation about his properties came to light "in a report submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency to the ATC-II in July last year regarding an investigation into a case related to alleged fundraising by the slain Afghan Taliban leader and his accomplices through the purchase of properties on the back of forged identities," the Dawn further wrote.

Analysts, however, believe that Pakist anti-terror court's move to put Mansour's properties under hammer is an eyewash ahead of a review by Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) that put the country in grey list in earlier this year.

The review by the watchdog was due in June but Pakistan got a reprieve of four months because of the Covid-19 crisis.

Islamabad has already been concealing the ground realities and fudging number of terrorits as the focus of the international community remains on the pandemic.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal on April 20, Pakistan removed thousands of names from its terrorist watch list in an effort to meet obligations ahead its assessment by a global anti-money-laundering watchdog.

"The so-called proscribed person list, which is maintained by Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority, or NACTA, is intended in part to help financial institutions avoid doing business with or processing transactions of suspected terrorists," the report stated.

Citing data by Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company, the WSJ said that about 1,800 of the names have been removed since the beginning of March.

Mansour was not a small catch for the US, the killing of whom Pakistan wants to cash-in now in front of the FATF.

In 2016, US President Barack Obama had announced Mansour's killing in the US drone strike in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan, calling his death as an important milestone in efforts to bring peace to Afghstan.

Pakistan hopes that by taking an action against the dead terrorist it would be able to throw dust in the eyes of the anti-money-laundering watchdog in June during the review.

( With inputs from ANI )