Britain bans four groups under anti-terrorism law

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) Britain added four organisations to its list of terrorist groups today the first to be outlawed under new legislation which makes it illegal to glorify acts of terrorism.

The two UK-based groups to be banned are Al Ghurabaa (AG) and The Saved Sect (SS), both believed to be splinter groups of Al-Muhajiroun, formerly led by the cleric Omar Bakri Mouhammad, the Home Office (interior ministry) said in a statement.

Al-Muhajiroun -- which praised the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States -- was dissolved in October 2004 and Bakri left Britain for Lebanon. He has been barred from returning.

The government said the groups had been disseminating deliberately provocative extremist Islamic messages primarily via the Internet.

''I am determined to act against those who, while not directly involved in committing acts of terrorism, provide support for and make statements that glorify, celebrate and exalt the atrocities of terrorist groups,'' said Home Secretary John Reid.

''I am also committed to ensuring that those organisations that change their name do not avoid the consequences of proscription,'' he added.

Proscription makes it a criminal offence for a person to belong to or encourage support for the group.

The government also outlawed TAK, which stands for Teyrebazen Azadiya Kurdistan or the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks.

TAK has claimed responsibility for a string of bomb attacks in Istanbul and in tourist resorts in Turkey over the last year and is believed to have links with outlawed Kurdish guerrillas fighting security forces in the southeast of the country.

The fourth proscribed group is the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), based in Baluchistan area in western Pakistan, the poorest and most thinly populated of Pakistan's four provinces.

BLA is fighting for an independent nation encompassing areas in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran dominated by the Baluch ethnic group.

The Home Office also listed alternative names under which the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK will be banned. The PKK was outlawed in Britain in 2001. The alternative names are Kongra Gele Kurdistan and Kadek.

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