The United States has designated underworld don Dawood Ibrahim as a global terrorist having links with Al Qaeda and financing activities of Laskhar-e-Tayiba and other terrorist organisations

Ibrahim is part of India's most-wanted list and is believed to be staying in Pakistan.

The US Treasury Department on Thursday announced that Dawood Ibrahim alias Sheikh Dawood Hassan, who is wanted in India for the 1993 Bombay serial blasts, has been put in the list of 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist' and his assets within the US have been frozen.

The designation freezes any assets belonging to Ibrahim within the US and prohibits transactions with American nationals, the announcement said.

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Washington, it added, will now request the United Nations to list the mafia don in pursuance of relevant Security Council resolutions.

The UN listing will require that all UN member states freeze Dawood's assets and impose a travel ban.

"This designation signals our commitment to identifying and attacking the financial ties between the criminal underworld and terrorism," stated Juan Zarate, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes.

"We are calling on the international community to stop the flow of dirty money that kills. For the Ibrahim syndicate, the business of terrorism forms part of thier larger criminal enterprise, which must be dismantled," he added.

With the announcement, the US has designated 322 individuals and organisations as terrorists and terrorist supporters and has frozen over $136.8 million in terrorist assets.

The fact sheet on Dawood Ibrahim put on the Department of Treasury's website said, Ibrahim, son of a police constable, has financially supported Islamic militant groups working against India such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.

Information from as recent as Fall 2002, indicates that Ibrahim has been helping finance increasing attacks in Gujarat by LeT, which is the armed wing of Markaz-ud-Oawa-wal-Irsha -- a Sunni anti-US missionary organisation formed in 1989.

The fact sheet said that Ibrahim's syndicate is involved in largescale shipment of narcotics in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. Its smuggling routes from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa are shared with Osama bin Laden and his terror network.

"A financial arrangement was reportedly brokered to facilitate bin Laden's use of these routes," the department said.

In the 1990s, Ibrahim travelled to Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban, it said.

Vindicating India's position that Pakistan has been sheltering Dawood Ibrahim, the Treasury Department said Ibrahim was in Karachi and possessed a Pakistan passport whose number was 0869537 under the individual category.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during his visit to India in 2001 had denied that Dawood had taken refuge in his country. 

The action against Dawood came two days after the US blacklisted the Al-Akhtar Trust, set up by Jaish-e-Mohammed's Masood Azhar as 'terrorist support organisation'.

Describing as 'a major development' the US move to declare Dawood Ibrahim a 'global terrorist', Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani on Friday said India stands vindicated.

EXTERNAL LINKS:
US designated Dawood Ibrahim as terrorist supporter
Fact Sheet