Pak's Jamaat-ud-Dawa could be banned following UN plea, says envoy

United Nations, Dec.10 (ANI): The political wing of the banned militant organization Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, could also be banned on the request of the United Nations Security Council, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, has said.

Talking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, Ambassador Haroon confirmed that India has approached to UN Security Council to get Jamaat-ud-Dawa banned.

He said that Pakistan is ready to ban the suspected outfit if the UN requests Islamabad to do so, adding that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa's bank accounts could also be freezed.

The Pakistan envoy's missive came as a tough-talking India urged the UN Security Council to declare the Jamaat-ud-Dawa a terrorist outfit.

During the course of a debate at the Security Council on terrorism, India's Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed asserted without naming Pakistan that the country, from where the terrorist attack originated and was planned, should take immediate steps to stop their operations.

"The Jamaat-ud-Dawa and other such organizations need to be proscribed internationally and effective sanctions imposed against them," The News quoted Ahamed as telling the 15-member UN Security Council, which held a debate on 'Threats to international peace and security cause by terrorists'.

India and the US have said that the Lashkar-e-Toiba and its leaders are involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

India in a letter Friday had formally asked the UN Security Council to declare the Jamaat-ud-Dawa as a terrorist outfit. It also demanded that its leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed be placed under the Security Council list of global terrorists.

The Nov 26 Mumbai terrorist attacks dominated the proceedings of this special meeting of the Security Council, wherein member nations not only condemned the heinous attack, but also underlined the need to bring those responsible for it to justice.(ANI)