M A I N   N E W S

UK freezes assets of LeT, Babbar Khalsa

London, November 3
Continuing its crackdown on terrorist funding, Britain announced freezing of assets of already outlawed Pakistan-based militant outfits Lashkar-e-Toiba and two Sikh militant groups along-with 22 others.

The new list announced yesterday by the Treasurey Chief, Mr Gordon Brown, included Babbar Khalsa, International Sikh Youth Federation and the LTTE.

The three militant outfits were outlawed by Britain in March last.

“The ready supply of finance is the lifeblood of modern terrorism. Those who finance terrorism are as guilty as those who commit it... We will do whatever is necessary to deprive terrorists of the funds they rely on,” Mr Brown said in a statement.

This is the third list freezing the accounts of terrorist outfits issued by the UK Treasurey in co-ordination with the US authorities after the September 11 terrorist strikes in New York and Washington.

It is a much broader list than the previous two with one of the groups believed to be connected to Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the US terror strikes also figuring in it.

The new list includes several Palestinian groups, prominent among them being the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the PFLP General Command, which claimed responsibility for the assassination last month of the Israeli Tourism Minister.

Mr Brown said he expected the financial institutions to check their records and freeze the assets of those named, wherever found.

At least 63 million in 36 accounts have been frozen in the UK, the statement said.

Similar actions are being taken in the US, the Group of Seven (G-7) nations, and others.

The full list from the UK Treasury reads: Lashkar-e-Toiba, Babbar Khalsa, International Sikh Youth Federation, LTTE, Abu Nidal Organisation, Aum Shinrikyo, Basque Fatherland and Liberation (ETA), Gama’a al-Islamiyya (Islamic group), Hamas-Izz al-Din al-Qassem, Hezbollah External Security Organisation, Kahane Chai (Kach), Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Mujahedeen Khalq Organisation (MEK), not including the National Council of Resistance of Iran, National Liberation Army, Palestinian Islamic Jehad, Palestine Liberation Front, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, PFLP-General Command, Real IRA, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Revolutionary Nuclei (formerly ELA), Revolutionary Organisation 17 November, Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army/Front, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). PTI