WASHINGTON - The United States and the United Nations Friday designated Pakistan`s Harakat-ul Jihad al-Islami as a foreign terror group and blacklisted its commander, the US Treasury Department said.

Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, who the United States labeled a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist," will have any of his assets in US jurisdiction frozen, and the listing will also "prohibit US persons from engaging in any transactions with him."

In New York, a UN Security Council panel confirmed that Harakat-ul Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) and Kashmiri were being added to its blacklist of individuals and entities linked to the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The UN blacklist was established under UN Security Council Resolution 1267, adopted in October 1999 for the purpose of overseeing implementation of sanctions imposed on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan for its support of Osama bin Laden`s extremist network.


Under the resolution, UN member states are required to impose travel bans, an asset freeze and an arms embargo on any individual or entity associated with Al-Qaeda, bin Laden and/or the Taliban.

As the militant group`s leader, US officials said 46-year-old Kashmiri "provides support to Al-Qaeda operations, including logistical support for Al-Qaeda`s terrorist attacks," the Treasury Department said in detailing deadly assaults on Pakistani government personnel and facilities.

"In acting together, the United States and United Nations are today taking another important step in combating the threat that Al-Qaeda and its affiliated organizations pose to innocent people around the world," said Stuart Levey, the US undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

State Department counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin added that Friday`s actions illustrate the global community`s resolve to counter the threat posed by Kashmiri and his group.

"The linkages between HUJI and Al-Qaeda are clear, and today`s designations convey the operational relationship between these organizations," Benjamin said.

HUJI`s area of operation, the Treasury Department said, extends "throughout South Asia," but it is mostly active in India and Pakistan.

It also provided fighters to Taliban militants fighting international forces in Afghanistan, and members of HUJI have trained in Al-Qaeda camps, officials said.

Among the attacks listed by the Treasury was a March 2006 suicide bombing at the US consulate in Karachi that killed four people and injured 48 others.

Kashmiri was also accused of involvement in an attack on the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark, following uproar over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

David Coleman Headley, the Chicago man accused of scouting for the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack and in a plot to kill a Danish cartoonist, worked with HUJI on the Danish plot, according to charges unveiled in March.

BDST: 13:10 HRS, August 07, 2010