Pakistanis added to U.N. sanctions list after Mumbai

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A committee of the U.N. Security Council has added four leaders of a Pakistani militant group to a list of people and groups facing sanctions for ties to al Qaeda or the Taliban, including a freeze on assets and travel ban, the U.N. said on Wednesday.

The four are leaders of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, considered an al Qaeda affiliate that India has accused of being behind last month's attacks in Mumbai, which killed at least 179 people.

The militants added to the sanctions list include Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, which the U.N. statement described as the leader of the group.

The others are Pakistan-born Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the group's chief of operations; Haji Muhammad Ashraf, its chief of finance; and India-born Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, described as a financier for the group who served as its chief in Saudi Arabia.

The same four were hit with U.S. Treasury Department sanctions in May. The U.N. sanctions, covered by Security Council resolution 1267 from 1999, include the mandatory freezing of assets and travel bans.

Earlier this week a former head of the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency said the United States wanted to include him on the U.N. blacklist, but he was not among the newly sanctioned individuals.

Long retired, Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul told Reuters in Pakistan the U.S. moves against him began several weeks ago, pre-dating the latest controversy surrounding the ISI.

The agency is currently under scrutiny because of its past links with Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The sanctions also covered what the committee said was a new alias for Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. An Indian government minister asked the council on Tuesday during a special session on terrorism to include Jamaat-ud-Dawa on the U.N. blacklist.

The U.S. State Department welcomed the additions to the list in a statement from Washington.

"These actions will limit the ability of known terrorists to travel, acquire weapons, plan, carry out or raise funds for new terrorist attacks," the statement said.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Todd Eastham)