By Lalit K. Jha, IANS,
United Nations : Acceding to India’s request, a UN Security Council committee Wednesday designated Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the frontal organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba, as a global terrorist organisation and its leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed a terrorist in the wake of thier alleged involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.
With this they are subject to freezing of assets, travel ban and arms embargo.
In a letter to the Security Council Friday, India had urged the 15-member UN body to “proscribe” them as they were involved in the Mumbai mayhem which killed more than 170 people including several foreigners.
Moving quickly, given the seriousness of the issue and the information provided by India in support of its demand, the Security Council Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee at its meeting held at the UN headquarters Wednesday afternoon approved the names as requested by India.
In addition to this, the Sanctions Committee also designated two other LeT leaders as terrorists. They are Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, chief of operations of Laskhar-e-Taiba, and Haji Muhammad Ashraf, chief of finance of the group. These names were added at the request of the US.
All the three are Pakistani nationals and their names have appeared in connection with the Mumbai terrorists attack.
The Sanctions Committee also designated Mahmoud Ahmed Bahaziq, an India-born Saudi national, as a terrorist. He served as LeT leader in Saudi Arabia and raised money for the terrorist outfit.
In addition to JeD, the frontal organisations of two other Pakistan-based terrorist outfits have also been included in the Security Council’s terror list. These include Al Amin Trust of the banned Al Rashid Trust and Pakistan Relief Foundation of Al-Akhtar Trust International.