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India set to ban 100 Al Qaeda-linked groups

By The Assam Tribune

NEW DELHI, May 16 (IANS): India is all set to formally designate nearly 100 Al Qaeda-linked international outfits as terrorist organisations and ban them to avoid any legal loophole if anyone associated with them is arrested in the country.

Prominent in the newly-revised list of the banned organisations are Jemaah Islamiyah of Indonesia, Islamic Libya's Jihad Group, the Islamic Combatant Group in Morocco, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, International Islamic Relief Organization, Abu Sayyaf group in Philippines and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. These groups are said to be linked to the global terror network of Al Qaeda and have been outlawed by the United Nations under the UN Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism (Implementation of Security Council Resolutions) Order, 2007.

Indian investigative agencies have been monitoring their activities but were not formally banned in the country.

A Home Ministry official said there have been no indications that such groups were active or were planning to get active in India but the move to ban them was considered to avoid any legal loophole in case anyone associated with these outfits was arrested.

The revised list of banned outfits will be made official soon once Home Minister P Chidambaram approves it, the official said.

The Home Ministry has already banned 34 organisations and their allied groups in India including terrorist outfits fighting in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast and Maoists in central India. The revised list also includes the Khalistan Zindabad Force as one of the terrorist organisations. Three pro-Khalistan terror outfits Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Khalistan Comando Force (KCF) and International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) are already banned.

The step to include Khalistan Zindabad Force comes amid reports that Sikh terror outfits were panning to regroup and revive militancy in Punjab.

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