U.K. BANNED INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN
The
British government on Thursday 5th July,2012, banned the Indian Mujahideen (IM) describing
it as a threat to national security and citing its alleged involvement in
several terror attacks, including the Mumbai bombings.The ban, which followed a
unanimous vote in the House of Commons, came as five men and a woman were
arrested in London in a counter-terror swoop ahead of the Olympic Games. Police
said the arrests though “significant” were not linked to any imminent attack.
Those arrested — three brothers and a married couple — were aged between 18 and
30. The BBC said some were British nationals.Announcing the ban, Home Office
Minister James Brokenshire said that there was evidence that the IM had been
“engaged in indiscriminate mass casualty attacks in India.”“For example, in May
2008, a spate of bomb detonations in the city of Jaipur killed 63 and in
September of last year an explosion outside the high court in Delhi reportedly
killed 12 and injured 65,” he said.
“We
believe that there is ample evidence that IM is concerned in terrorism and I
believe it is right that we add the organisation to the list of proscribed
organisations,” the Minister told MPs.The ban makes it an offence to be a
member of the IM under Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000. The group is already
banned in several countries, including the U.S. and New Zealand.Mr. Brokenshire
said that IM “has frequently perpetrated attacks against civilian targets...
with the intention of maximising casualties.”“They use violence to achieve
their stated objectives of creating an Islamic state in India and implementing
Sharia law,” he said. “IM has sought to incite sectarian hatred in India by
deliberately targeting Hindu places of worship, such as a prayer ceremony in
Varanasi which killed a child in December 2010.“The organisation has also
publicly threatened to attack British tourists, so they clearly pose a threat
to British nationals in India,” Mr. Brokenshire said.Welcoming the move,
Labour’s shadow home office minister Diana Johnson said the IM was behind “some
of the most appalling acts of terrorism in recent years.”
Prof. John Kurakar
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