India should give Kasab consular access if he is Pakistani: Envoy

United Nations, Dec.13 (ANI): India should give consular access to Ajmal Amir Kasab, the surviving terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks if he is a Pakistani national, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations has said.

The Daily Times quoted Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon as telling a private television channel that if it was determined that Kasab was a Pakistani national, then the first step would be to give consular access to 'this person who claims to be a Pakistani'.

Haroon, who has been at the forefront of Pakistan's defence at the United Nations in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, had said two days ago that the UN Security Council committee had failed to contact Islamabad before going ahead with the imposition of sanctions on three Pakistani citizens, labelled as terrorists and organizations allegedly linked to militant activities.

He told GEO News that UN's committee had reviewed many names even before he assumed ambassadorship.

Pakistan, he, however, said, would abide by committee's decisions, but under protest.he United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has banned the political wing of the banned militant organization Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

The Security Council has also declared it a terrorist organization.

A committee of the UN Security Council placed financial sanctions on four members of the LeT, as well as the charitable organization that Indian and U.S. officials say serves as the Lashkar''s financial front, according to the U.N.

The four members are Hafiz Saeed, the leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba; Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, its chief of operations; and two finance officials, Haji Mohammad Ashraf and Mahmoud Ahmed Bahaziq.

The US Treasury Department had imposed sanctions against the same four persons in May. The UN sanctions include the mandatory freezing of assets and travel bans.

A tough-talking India had 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.

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