WASHINGTON, Jan 30: The Bush administration has designated the Pakistani Sunni Muslim group Lashkar-i-Jhangvi as a “foreign terrorist organization,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday.

The group has been blamed for a string of attacks on Pakistan’s Shia community, and the leader of one faction, Asif Ramzi, was suspected of involvement in the killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl last year. Ramzi died in December in an explosion, possibly an accident.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is the 37th group on the United States list of “foreign terrorist organizations.”

The designation makes it illegal to provide material support to the groups.

Their assets in the United States are frozen and members can be denied entry to the country.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell signed the designation order on Jan 21 and Boucher said it became effective on Thursday.—Reuters