The United States has formally published the removal of three Pakistan-linked individuals from its federal sanctions list, ending designations that had stood for over two decades in cases spanning terrorism and narcotics trafficking. The delisting, confirmed through Treasury Department records, was formally registered in the Federal Register on Wednesday, 7 October 2026.

The Three Men Removed

The individuals delisted are Mohammed Tufail (also identified as S M Tufail and Sheik Mohammed Tufail), Sher Afghan (known by aliases including Shir Afghan, Mohammad Aziz and Abdullah Khan), and Nasir Ali Khan, born in Pakistan in 1955. All three had been placed on US sanctions lists in 2001 — Tufail under terrorism-related designations in December 2001, and Afghan and Khan under narcotics sanctions in June 2001.

Tufail was identified at the time of his designation as an industrialist and one of three key directors of Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN), an organisation founded by Pakistani nuclear scientists. The Treasury Department had stated in 2001 that UTN directors and members had reportedly met Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda leaders, and Taliban leader Mullah Omar to discuss the development of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons.

Narcotics Cases: Afghan and Khan

Sher Afghan was added to the US sanctions list in June 2001 under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. Nasir Ali Khan was similarly sanctioned in June 2001 on narcotics grounds. A State Department report covering Pakistan's counter-narcotics efforts in 1996 noted that Pakistan's caretaker government had arrested a major trafficker named Nasir Ali Khan who was wanted in the United States on drug charges, with an American extradition request reportedly pending at the time.

Part of a Broader Sanctions Modernisation Drive

The removals were originally processed by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on 27 July, as part of a sweeping effort to update its designations framework. That exercise removed 84 individuals and entities in total and updated several other entries. OFAC said the exercise was aimed at keeping US sanctions 'targeted, effective and current.'

Those removed included individuals and entities no longer considered US national-security or foreign-policy priorities — among them some deceased persons, defunct entities, and targets sanctioned more than 20 years ago. Importantly, the Treasury did not publicly specify which rationale applied to each of the three Pakistan-linked individuals, and available records do not establish why each man was taken off the list in July.

What OFAC Said

OFAC clarified that the broader sanctions-modernisation exercise was designed to remove outdated entries and improve list accuracy, while ensuring that removals 'did not undermine US national-security or foreign-policy interests.' The agency has not issued individual explanations for the three Pakistan-linked delistings.

Significance and What Comes Next

This comes amid an evolving US foreign-policy posture toward South Asia, though officials have not drawn a direct link between these delistings and any diplomatic development. The removals, two-plus decades after the original designations, raise questions about the criteria and timeline for sanctions reviews — particularly for terrorism-related listings, where the evidentiary bar is typically higher. Analysts will be watching whether further Pakistan-linked entries are reviewed in subsequent OFAC modernisation rounds.