UN's status update for Ilyas Kashmiri: 'reported dead'

Almost a year after key 26/11 suspect Ilyas Kashmiri was reported killed in a drone strike, the United Nations has updated his status as "reported dead" in a sanctions list of individuals and entities associated with the Al Qaeda.

The UN Security Council Al- Qaeda sanctions committee amended on May 10 the information related to Kashmiri in its comprehensive 'Al Qaeda sanctions list'.

The updated information reads Kashmiri 'reportedly deceased in Pakistan on June 11, 2011'.

The updated information said Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri 'was' -- instead of the earlier 'is' -- the commander of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, which provided support to Al Qaeda operations.

Kashmiri was among nine militants believed killed in a drone strike carried out by the United States  on June 3, 2011. However, he is still listed among India's most wanted terrorists.

Media reports of Kashmiri's death in the past have turned out to be inaccurate, with the dreaded militant resurfacing later.

Just days after his death was reported in June last year, a media report in Pakistan said the chief of the Harkat-ul- Jihad al-Islami is still alive and active in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A photograph said to be of Kashmiri's corpse that was issued by HuJI actually turned out to be that of a member of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba team that attacked Mumbai in November 2008.

The HuJI had also issued a statement that had said the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami 313 Brigade "confirms the martyrdom" of its leader Kashmiri in a US drone strike on June 3, 2011.

The statement had said the militant outfit will take "revenge" for Kashmiri's death from the US.

The UNSC list has been established by the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) concerning the Al Qaeda and its associated individuals and entities.

The list also includes the name of India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, responsible for the deadly 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts.

His name was included in the list in November 2003 with details of various passports issued to him in India and Pakistan as well as addresses of his residences in Karachi, including a 'palatial bungalow in the hilly area of Noorabad'.

The name of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, killed by American forces last year, still figures on the list.

Information about him was last updated in May 2011 with a line that read 'confirmed to have died in Pakistan in May 2011'.