Proscribed groups included in UN Designated List

• NTJ, JMI and Willayath As Seylani included in list terrorism related activities and funding for terrorism
• Date of start of the NTJ given as 1 March 2012 with Kattankudy address
• Defence Sec. has amended List of Designated Persons under UN Regulations of 2012 to include the three groups

By Chandani Kirinde 

The Government has included the three organisations it proscribed in the wake of the Easter Day bombings in the List of Designated Persons/ Entities under the United Nations Regulations made under the UN Act of 1968.

The three groups, namely National Thowheed Jama’ath (NTJ), Jama’ath Milla’athe Ibrahim (JMI) and the Willayath As Seylani, have been included in the list for terrorism-related activities and funding for terrorism.

The amendment to the gazette of November 2016 containing the List of Designated Persons was made by the Ministry of Defence Secretary General Shantha Kottegoda (retired) this week and lists the date of start of the NTJ as 1 March 2012, along with an address on Fishing Centre Road, New Kattankudy.

The other two groups have been named but there is no date on which they started or addresses in relation to them listed in the Gazette.The amended list also included the names of 26 individuals who are listed for having connections to the LTTE and terrorism related activities and funding for terrorism.

The promulgated regulations are based on the 1968 law that are meant to give effect to certain provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

The UN Security Council recently called for the updating of the sanctions list of individuals and entities engaging in terrorism amidst growing concern that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) are evolving into a covert network despite its territorial setbacks, and are trying to expand their operations to states previously deemed safe from such risk.

The representative of Peru, who chairs the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UNSC, referred to Sri Lanka among several other countries which have faced attacks by the terrorist groups, including ISIL, Al-Qaida and their affiliates who are escalating violence against soft targets and places of worship.