ISLAMABAD—The United States has added four top Islamic terrorists operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan to its list of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” amid a resurgence of violence and border tensions in the area. The terrorist leaders hail from the Pakistani Taliban and an al-Qaeda branch in South Asia.
Both terrorist groups operate from Afghanistan, but they have hideouts in Pakistan’s mountainous northwest and elsewhere as well.
The State Department’s announcement on Thursday comes days after Pakistan’s Taliban movement, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, ended a monthslong ceasefire with Pakistan and resumed attacks across the country.
Amid threats from the terrorists, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry tightened security in public places and mosques on Friday. The TTP has asked its fighters to target security forces across the country. The terrorist group was behind the 2014 attack on a Peshawar school that killed 147 people, mostly schoolchildren….