Updated on
Summary US President Barack Obama has signed Haqqani Network Terrorist Designation Act of 2012.
US President Barack Obama has signed into law an act requiring the Secretary of State to determine whether the Haqqani network meets legal criteria to be designated as a foreign terrorist organisation.Passed recently by both the chambers of the US Congress - the House of Representatives and the Senate - the Haqqani Network Terrorist Designation Act of 2012 was signed by Obama yesterday amid repeated demands by US lawmakers to designate Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organisation.The outfit is accused of carrying out large number of terrorist attacks on American establishments in Afghanistan, including the 2008 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul that left 58 people dead.The State Department, which has slapped sanctions against some of the key leaders of the network, has so far resisted the move to designate it as a foreign terrorist organisation.Although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had publicly announced late last year that sanctions against the outfit were on their way, the State Department is yet to make any official announcement in this regard and maintains that the process is on.Congressman Mike Rogers, who is also the Chairman of Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, had earlier urged Obama to quickly sign the act into law, holding that it was now time for action to protect lives of US soldiers.
