Govt bans 100 global terror outfits

The government has banned more than a hundred terrorist outfits linked to al-Qaeda from across the globe.

Terror outfits like Jemaah Islamiyah (involved in Bali bombing) of Indonesia, Islamic Jihad Group of Libya, the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad were declared as terrorist organisations by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The government has now declared these more than 100 entities as outlawed in India by putting their names along with 33 other outfits in the list of banned organisations of Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Ministry has put these entities together (at entry number 33) in its ‘revised’ list of banned outfits as “Organisations listed in the Schedule to the UN Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (Implementation of Security Council Resolutions) Order, 2007.”

The action under amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is seen as a move “to avoid any legal ambiguity” in case Indian security agencies want to lay their hands on anyone associated with these bodies, an official said.

Though India had been keeping tabs on these outfits in accordance with the relevant UNSC resolutions, no such action has been taken in the past.

Other prominent names in the list include International Islamic Relief Organisation of Philippines and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan among others.

The number of these outfits will increase or decrease as amended from time to time. The Ministry has put them together under one head so that it does not have to revise the list whenever it is amended at the UNSC level, the official said.

The Home Ministry’s revised list of banned outfits — which is to be made public on its official website soon — also for the first time includes the Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF) as one of the terrorist organisations under the UAP Act.

Though names of three pro-Khalistan terror outfits — Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Khalistan Comando Force (KCF) and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) — have been on the list for long, the move to include KZF in the revised list is seen in the light of increased activities of the outfit in India in the past couple of years.

Officials believe that the revised list will help the security agencies in pursuing cases against the terrorists belonging to these outfits in courts more effectively.

Prominent in the list of banned outfits in India include: Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Tahrik-e-Furqan, Al Badr, Jamiat-ul-Mujahidden, al-Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Ansar, Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Umar-Mujahideen, Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front, ULFA, NDFB, LTTE, SIMI, Deendar Anjuman, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist-People’s War), Maoist Communist Centre and CPI (Maoist).