M A I N   N E W S

Indian Mujahideen on US terror blacklist
Ashish Kumar Sen in Washington DC

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday designated the Indian Mujahideen (IM), an India-based terrorist group with ties to Pakistan, as a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” and a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”.

The order describes the Indian Mujahideen as a terrorist group with “significant links to Pakistan”. The group is responsible for several bomb attacks throughout India since 2005, resulting in the death of hundreds of civilians.

As a result of Thursday’s actions, US citizens are now prohibited from knowingly providing material support or resources to, or engaging in other transactions with, the Indian Mujahideen. All property owned by the organisation in the United States has also been frozen. The State Department took these actions in consultation with the US Justice Department and the Department of Treasury.

“These designations highlight the threat posed by the IM not only to Western interests, but to India, a close US partner. The Indian populace has borne the brunt of IM’s wanton violence and today’s actions illustrate our solidarity with the Indian Government,” said Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, State Department’s Coordinator for Counter-terrorism.

Benjamin said the designations were an effective means for curtailing support to terrorist activities and pressuring groups to abandon terrorism.

The IM has close ties with other US-designated terrorist groups, including the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI).

The IM’s stated goal is to carry out terrorist actions against non-Muslims in furtherance of its ultimate objective - an Islamic Caliphate across South Asia.

A report this month by the Congressional Research Service, which provides policy and legal analysis to members of the US Congress, said India faced a threat from Islamist terrorism and cited the IM.

The IM’s preferred form of attack is with multiple coordinated bombings in crowded areas.

In 2008, 30 persons were killed in an IM attack in Delhi. It was also responsible for 16 synchronised bomb blasts at crowded urban centres and a local hospital in Ahmedabad the same year. The blasts killed 38 persons and injured more than 100 others.

The group also played a “facilitative role” in the 2008 Mumbai attacks carried out by the LeT that killed 163 persons, including six Americans.

In 2010, the group claimed responsibility for an attack in Varanasi that left a child dead and at least 20 persons injured. It also bombed a popular German bakery in Pune, killing 17 and injuring more than 60 persons.

The IM is believed to be an offshoot or pseudonym of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The Indian government outlawed it in 2010.