In a major move ahead of the general elections in Pakistan, the United States on Monday designated Milli Muslim League (MML) — the political front of Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud Dawa — a foreign terrorist organisation.

The State and the Treasury Departments announced on Monday that the MML, which openly campaigns with posters of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, has been added under LeT’s designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under two different laws.

The State Department said that another LeT front, Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Kashmir (TAJK) was also added to the lists. TAJK is said to be a front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which according to the Trump administration, continues to operate freely inside Pakistan.

In a simultaneous move, seven members of MML central leadership body have been designated as foreign terrorists.

The Treasury Department said that it was also targeting MML president Saifullah Khalid, General Secretary Fayyaz Ahmad and five others.

“LeT continues to operate freely within Pakistan, holding public rallies, raising funds, and plotting and training for terrorist attacks,” the State Department said. “Make no mistake: whatever LeT chooses to call itself, it remains a violent terrorist group,” the Department’s Counterterrorism Coordinator Nathan A. Sales said in Washington.

The move comes a day after the Election Commission of Pakistan asked the MML to produce a clearance certificate by the interior ministry for its registration as a political party.

The election commission had earlier rejected the MML’s application for registration as a political party after the interior ministry objected to its ties to banned militant outfits.

The State Department said the move was aimed at denying the LeT the resources it needs to plan and carry out further terrorist attacks.

The LeT was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group on December 26, 2001. Its leader, Hafiz Saeed, is also designated as an SDGT.

Saeed created the MML last August as the group’s political front and LeT members make up MML’s leadership and the “so-called party” openly displays Saeed’s likeness in its election banners and literature, the State Department said.

The US has demanded the arrest of Saeed, who carries a $10 million US bounty, after he was set free by a Lahore court which refused to extend his detention.

(With inputs from agencies)