US Congressman asks President Biden to reject Pak's effort to install 'jihadist' envoy
Masood Khan's name as Pakistan envoy to US was proposed last year
United States Congressman Scott Perry has expressed "grave concern" over the appointment of Masood Khan as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States and has written a letter to US President Joe Biden.
In the letter he called on the US president to "reject any diplomatic credentials presented" to Khan and also reject any "effort by the government of Pakistan to install this jihadist as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States." The letter was written on January 27.
Calling him a "terrorist sympathiser", Perry in a scathing letter pointed out how Khan has "praised both terrorists and foreign terrorist organisations -including Hizbul Mujahideen – in stark and unsettling terms" and has "encouraged young men to emulate jihadists like Burhan Wani". Burhan, commander of Hizbul Mujahideen was shot down by Indian forces in 2016.
While Masood's name has sent by Islamabad as Pakistan's envoy, the US State Department has paused on its approval.
The US Congressman in the letter pointed how Khan "lashed out at the United States for designating the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen for sanctions, calling those sanctions “unjustifiable”.
In the two-page letter, it was also noted that Masood Khan in 2019 "willingly appeared" alongside Fazlur Rehman Khalil who is a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) and the founder of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), a US-designated foreign terrorist organization. Khalil has had close ties with Osama bin Laden andcosignatory of Laden's first fatwa, issued in 1998, calling for attacks against the United States.
The letter comes at a time when US-Pakistan ties have hit an all-time low. US President Biden hasn't called Pakistan PM Imran Khan since taking charge last year.
The letter while listing out "Khan’s perverse attachment to Islamic terrorism" said it "exceedingly obvious that Pakistan has embraced its identity as a super terrorist state" even as it highlighted that Masood is a "supporter of the terrorist groups Jamaat-e-Islami".
Pakistan's ambassador-designate has also called on the US to release Aafia Siddiqui who has been convicted of attempting to murder American troops.
Masood Khan's name as Pakistan envoy to US was proposed last year and he supersede Dr Asad Majeed Khan. He had joined Pakistan foreign service in 1980s and has served as Pak envoy to UN, China and even as Pakistan'sforeign ministry spokesman. Khan'sTwitter account was suspended earlier due to violation of Twitter policies.