Indian Mujahideen is among seven additional terrorist groups identified by the New Zealand Government under the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, amended in December 2009.
Prime Minister John Key, who is also in charge of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, said that in terms of the Act, all assets held by the groups and found in New Zealand either now or in the future, will be frozen.
His announcement on October 22, 2010 included Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Izz Al Din Al Qassam Brigades (the Military Wing of Hamas), the Real Irish Republican Army, the Continuity Irish Republican Army, the New Peoples Army/Communist Party of the Philippines and The Islamic Resistance (Hizbollah’s Military Wing).
“These designations help implement our international obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, which is aimed at preventing the activities of terrorists,” Mr Key said.
He said the seven entities mentioned in the latest list were responsible for various terrorist acts, including the indiscriminate killing of civilians.
He said that any organisation or individual, whether designated as a terrorist entity or not, supporting these groups and involved in activities such as fundraising, recruiting or harbouring terrorists is a criminal offence in New Zealand.
Mr Key said these designations were not a response to domestic terrorist threats in New Zealand but formed a part of the Government’s support for building an international bulwark against terrorist activities, wherever they might occur.
“The Government is determined that New Zealand is not used to support terrorist activities,” he said.
New Zealand has designated nearly 500 terrorist groups and individuals listed by the UN under UN Security Council Resolution 1267.
Four other terrorist entities including Al Shabaab (Somalia), ETA (Spain), FARC (Colombia) and PKK (Turkey) not listed by the UN are also included in the New Zealand banned list.
According to Wikipedia, Indian Mujahideen is a Pakistan based Islamic terrorist group in India and that the Group had claimed responsibility for several attacks against innocent targets in India.
“Believed to be a “shadow amalgam of the ‘Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and ‘Lashkar E Toiba,’ the Indian Mujahideen has been declared a terrorist organization. Investigators believe that Indian Mujahideen is one of many groups composed of lower-tier SIMI members.
“According to the Indian Intelligence Bureau, SIMI took new titles because the top leadership of SIMI have been detained and would be available for interrogation. The change in names is also believed to signal a change in tactics as SIMI-affiliated militants attempt to garner more support from India’s Muslim community rather than be seen as a group consisting of foreigners,” it said.
Two days after the May 13, 2008 bombings in Jaipur (which killed 63 and injured 216 or more people), the Islamic extremist group sent an e-mail to Indian media, claiming responsibility for the attacks and saying that “It would demolish the faiths (all religions apart from Islam) of the infidels of India.”
