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Washington: The United States said it has designated a Bangladeshi Islamist group, Harkat-ul-Jihad Al Islami, as a "terrorist" organisation, subjecting it to US financial sanctions.
Bangladesh accuses the group of involvement in a grenade attack on a political rally in 2004 in which 23 people were killed.
A statement posted on the US State Department website said the group's leader had signed a 1998 fatwa sponsored by Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden that "declared American civilians to be legitimate targets for attack".
"Since then, HUJI-B has been implicated in a number of terrorist attacks in Bangladesh and abroad," it said.
Financial institutions
The statement said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday named Harkat as a "Foreign Terrorist Organisation and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist".
The designation freezes any property held by the group in the United States, requires US financial institutions to freeze any assets held by the group, and makes it illegal for people subject to US jurisdiction to provide material support to it, the statement said.
Bangladesh banned Harkat in October 2005 and said yesterday its security forces were on top of the organisation after the arrest of more than 60 activists, including two key leaders.
"Intelligence agencies and lawmen are keeping watch so that the extremist organisation cannot resume its operations," the Home Ministry said in a statement.
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