Pakistani Group Tagged 'Terrorist'

(AP)  Secretary of State Colin Powell designated Pakistani Islamic radical group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba as a foreign terrorist organization Thursday, accusing it of maintaining close ties with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

Powell also accused the group of numerous bus and church bombings.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Pakistani Islamic group was involved in the January 2002 kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan.

He also said the group was responsible for the 1997 killing of four oil workers in Karachi.

The designation brings the number of foreign organizations on the U.S. terrorism list to 36. Americans are forbidden by law from providing assistance to groups officially listed as terrorist organizations.

Boucher said the administration will attempt to have the group included on the United Nations terrorism list.

He said Pakistan has also designated Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Sunni Muslim group, as a terrorist organization.

"They have ties to al Qaeda, ties to the Taliban, in addition to receiving sanctuary in Afghanistan for their activities in Pakistan," Boucher said.

U.S. financial institutions are required to block the financial assets of foreign terrorist organizations. The designation also enables the State Department to deny visas to their members.