Pakistan's Punjab government has warned citizens against providing charity to banned organizations such as Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), stating that those who do so will face terrorism charges.
In a major counter-terror operation spanning three states, the Delhi Police has dismantled a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) module comprising eight operatives, including seven Bangladeshi nationals who had illegally entered India and procured forged identity documents, an official said on Sunday.
Some leaders of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed have claimed that their outfit played a role in last year's mass anti-government protests in Bangladesh that led to the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The Pakistan Army and members of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) of Hafiz Saeed attended the funeral of three persons killed in the Indian military strikes on the terror group's headquarters in Muridke, some 40 kms from Lahore. The funeral prayer was held amid high security, with members of the civil bureaucracy also present. Qayyum, a JuD spokesperson, said the three persons were sleeping in a room adjacent to the mosque when the Indian attack occurred and the mosque was destroyed. He said Malik, Khalid, and Mudassir, believed to be members of the JuD, served as the mosque's prayer leaders and caretakers.
Pakistan claims it was a mosque and an educational complex that were hit in the strikes at Muridke, located at about 40 km from Lahore.
Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Razaullah Nizamani Khalid alias Abu Saifullah Khalid, who was the brain behind the 2006 attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters, was killed by three unidentified gunmen in Sindh province of Pakistan on Sunday, officials in New Delhi said.
The SECP notification further warned that non-compliance with the said ruling could result in a hefty monetary fine.
The confiscation of properties of JuD and FIF comes after Pakistan formally placed them in the list of banned organisations on Tuesday.
The cases have been registered in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan for collection of funds for terror financing through assets/properties made and held in the names of Trusts/ Non Profit Organisations including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust and Muaz Bin Jabal Trust.
At least 56 seminaries and facilities being run by JuD and its wing FIF in Pakistan's southern Sindh province have been taken over by authorities.
The government last month had taken over the JuD's famous Muridke Markaz and Lahore's headquarters of Masjid Al Qadsia in Chauburji.
The 74-year-old retired general had last month said that he was the biggest supporter of the LeT and its founder Hafiz Saeed
India has also taken note of reports of Saeed's son Talha contesting elections in Pakistan and said the "mainstreaming" of radical terror outfits in the neighbouring country is nothing new and that it has been part of its State policy for a long time.
Makki was the second in command of JuD and he took over the reins of the group soon after Saeed's detention
The government of Pakistan's Punjab province has justified its allocation of over Rs 61 million to the largest centre of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, saying the funds are needed to continue the services being provided to people by the facility.
In a sign of official patronage to Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawah, the Pakistan government is running two special trains to transport people to Lahore for the terror group's two-day congregation in Lahore.
The JuD has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States in June 2014.
Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, an United Nations-designated terrorist who trained the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) attackers for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and acted as the outfit's chief on at least two occasions, died in a prison in Pakistan's Punjab province while serving a sentence for terror financing, his aide said on Wednesday.
According to Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) list, which was updated on Tuesday, JuD and FIF were among 70 organisations proscribed by the ministry of Interior under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawah has stepped up its use of the internet and social media, including Twitter and Facebook, to raise funds for its activities and to spread propaganda aimed at fomenting unrest in India.
The US said the removal of the ban on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation would jeopardise Pakistan's ability to meet its commitments to fight terrorism.
Amid global concerns that terrorists may take advantage of the devastating floods in Pakistan, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), blamed by India for the Mumbai attacks, has claimed that it has received donations for the deluge-hit people from "hundreds" of British-Muslims. The JuD, which acts as a front for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba that carried out the 2008 strikes in Mumbai leaving 166 people dead, is said to have significant support in the UK, The Sunday Times reported.
The Mumbai attack mastermind had indicated about a week before his arrest that he might launch Tehreek Azadi Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK) to 'expedite the freedom of Kashmir'.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa not only collected funds for charity and diverted it to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, but also helped the outfit legitimise money collected through extortion, counterfeiting, smuggling and animal skin trade. Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com reports
Unfazed by sanctions imposed by the government, Mumbai 2008 attacks mastermind Hafeez Saeed-led militant outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawah has launched an ambulance service in Karachi in southern port city of Pakistan.
Pakistan on Thursday said it was "disturbed" by reports that India could be preparing for additional nuclear tests and hoped a unilateral moratorium on testing would remain in place in the region.
The Pakistan government has, however, put the JuD on the list of groups being closely watched by the officials.
In a paradigm shift in its policy against terrorism, Pakistan has included Jamaat-ud-Dawa led by the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and the dreaded Haqqani network in the list of proscribed organisations after the US mounted pressure on the country.
Stepping up operations against terror groups, Pakistani security forces on Friday sealed more offices of the Lashker-e-Taiba's front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah across the country and reportedly rounded up dozens of its activists.The clampdown, which started after sundown on Thursday with the group's founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed being put under house arrest, continued today with JuD offices locked up in other parts of the country.
A Pakistani court has issued a notice to the Jamat-ud-Dawah, led by the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, for running a Taliban-style parallel judicial system in Lahore.
The minister ruled out the possibility of any legal action against the groups saying 'how can you prosecute a group with whom the state itself has been involved with?'.
The counsel for Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah, today told a court hearing a petition challenging his detention that the group was not linked to the Taliban and that the UN Security Council had not asked Pakistan to detain its leaders.
The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed has asked Muslim men to 'make their women observe pardah' and criticised co-education, saying it is perverting the youth of Pakistan. Delivering the sermon during Friday prayers at the JuD's Jamia Masjid Al-Qadsia at Chowburji in Lahore, Saeed described the ban imposed by France and other European countries on wearing the 'hijab' and constructing minarets in mosques as a "conspiracy against Muslims."
The United Nations Security Council's sanctions committee has not received any petition from Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for Lashkar-e-Tayiba, to reconsider the decision declaring it as a terrorist group, a top official said on Thursday. Reports from Pakistan had said that the JUD is appealing the decision but Coordinator of Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Monitoring Committee Richard Barrett said no such petition has been received.
The banned Jamaat-ud Dawa has speeded up its campaign of collecting donations via social networking during the holy month of Ramadan. To collect zakat and sadaqa al-fitra the JuD has turned to Twitter and Facebook.
The JuD's Muslim Medical Mission would request the Pakistani government for help in this regard.
India on Wednesday said an effective action by Pakistani government against the LeT and other terror outfits will have to go far beyond "merely" proscribing their publicity through electronic media.
Pakistani authorities have extended by two months the detention of Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and seven other activists of the front organisation of Lashkar-e-Tayiba, blamed for the Mumbai terrorist attacks.A spokesman for the Punjab government told reporters that the province's home department had on Saturday extended the detention of Saeed and the seven other JuD leaders by 60 days.Saeed and other Jamaat leaders were placed under house arrest for a month.
The team of 30 doctors of 'Muslim Medical Mission' of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah applied for a visa through online and courier.