UNITED NATIONS DECLARED JAMAAT-UD-DAWA AS TERRORIST ORGANISATION

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council has placed sanctions against Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front organization for
Lashkar-e-Taiba, declaring it a terrorist organization.

The Council panel has designated four men linked to the Mumbai attacks as terrorists subject to sanctions.

The four men are believed to hold leadership positions in the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba that is accused of orchestrating last month's attacks that left over 180 dead in Mumbai.

Designated as terrorists subject to UN sanctions were Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Lashkar's operations chief; Muhammad Saeed, the group's leader; Haji Muhammad Ashraf, its chief of finance; and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, a financier with the group.

The Security Council's al-Qaida and Taliban sanctions committee added them to its list of terrorists subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo under a council resolution adopted this year.

The US Treasury Department last week designated the men as terrorists and ordered any US assets frozen.

Earlier on Wednesday, in what is being read as the first sign of Pakistan wilting in the face of growing international pressure, Islamabad had said that it will ban Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD) “the political arm of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has been recruiting fidayeen killers like the captured terrorist Ajmal” if the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) declared JUD a terrorist outfit.

It's learnt the UNSC has already initiated the necessary steps to ban JUD and tighten the screws on its chief Hafiz Saeed, regarded as a key man behind the Mumbai carnage, who is wanted by India as a criminal terrorist. A Saeed-specific ban is also a certainty, said government sources.

Pakistan, which had denied the complicity of Lashkar in Mumbai attacks, had to make the statement about banning JUD at the UNSC because of the near-unanimity in the Security Council about JUD's involvement in terrorism. The UNSC move marked a global concert against Pakistan because of its failure to carry out its repeated pledges to India and others to crack down on terrorist camps.

``After the designation of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD) under resolution 1267, the government on receiving communication from the Security Council shall proscribe the JUD and take other consequential actions, as required, including the freezing of assets,'' said Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan's permanent representative in the UN. Sources said that he gave an undertaking to the same effect to the world body on Tuesday.

Indian officials seemed satisfied with the impending ban on JUD by Pakistan.

Haroon also said that no LeT camp would be allowed to operate from Pakistan. Pakistan's NSA Mahmud Ali Durrani had reiterated on Wednesday that his country would follow all UN resolutions. ``We will follow any UN resolution. There should be no doubt. If our investigations prove the involvement of any organisation in Pakistan, we will definitely ban it,'' Durrani told a news channel.

Meanwhile, Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani confirmed on Wednesday that police had detained Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, the two members of LeT whom India has blamed for the attacks in Mumbai. He said that the allegations against them are being looked into.