Pakistan cracks down on Lashkar, JuD
Saturday, 13 December 2008
MUZAFFARABAD, (Pakistan), Dec 12 (Reuters): Pakistan shut offices and arrested scores of activists of an Islamic charity as international pressure mounted for firm action against militants blamed for the Mumbai attacks, officials said Friday.
The overnight raids followed Pakistan announcing it would abide by a UN decision placing Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, on its terrorism sanctions list of people and organisations linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The action followed mounting pressure for action from India and the United States after the attack by gunmen that killed 179 people, including six Americans, in Mumbai last month.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met with Pakistani political leaders and army chief General Kayani before going to New Delhi on Friday, as Washington kept up intense diplomatic efforts partly aimed at keeping Pakistani-Indian relations from worsening.
Saeed, who founded Lashkar in 1990 and officially left it in 2001 just days before Pakistan banned it, has been put under house arrest, according to one of his spokesmen.
Three associates were also added to the UN list and will be subject to sanctions freezing assets and restricting travel, but a Pakistani television news channel reported one of them is dead and another has been in a Saudi jail for the past three years.
An intelligence official told Reuters that Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group blamed with Lashkar for a 2001 attack on India's parliament, was also detained.
One close aide of Azhar's told Reuters: "I think they could have detained him to relieve pressure, but I don't know the exact whereabouts of the Maulana."
In Pakistani Kashmir's capital Muzaffarabad, police raided Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity regarded as a Lashkar front.
"On the orders of the Interior Ministry, we have sealed their main office and all their assets including two schools and a religious seminary and placed its regional head under house arrest," said Chaudhry Imtiaz, a top administration official.
Pakistani Kashmir, as well as in several cities including Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta. A Jamaat spokesman said 100 workers were arrested in North West Frontier Province alone.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa's headquarters at a sprawling complex in the eastern town of Muridke appeared deserted. Officials said the office, schools and hospitals it ran there had shut on Dec. 4.
A spokesman for Pakistan's central bank said late on Thursday that directives had been issued to banks to freeze JuD accounts and assets of the four men added to the UN sanctions list.
Television reports said the JuD would be banned though no official announcement has yet been made.
The overnight raids followed Pakistan announcing it would abide by a UN decision placing Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, on its terrorism sanctions list of people and organisations linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The action followed mounting pressure for action from India and the United States after the attack by gunmen that killed 179 people, including six Americans, in Mumbai last month.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met with Pakistani political leaders and army chief General Kayani before going to New Delhi on Friday, as Washington kept up intense diplomatic efforts partly aimed at keeping Pakistani-Indian relations from worsening.
Saeed, who founded Lashkar in 1990 and officially left it in 2001 just days before Pakistan banned it, has been put under house arrest, according to one of his spokesmen.
Three associates were also added to the UN list and will be subject to sanctions freezing assets and restricting travel, but a Pakistani television news channel reported one of them is dead and another has been in a Saudi jail for the past three years.
An intelligence official told Reuters that Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group blamed with Lashkar for a 2001 attack on India's parliament, was also detained.
One close aide of Azhar's told Reuters: "I think they could have detained him to relieve pressure, but I don't know the exact whereabouts of the Maulana."
In Pakistani Kashmir's capital Muzaffarabad, police raided Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity regarded as a Lashkar front.
"On the orders of the Interior Ministry, we have sealed their main office and all their assets including two schools and a religious seminary and placed its regional head under house arrest," said Chaudhry Imtiaz, a top administration official.
Pakistani Kashmir, as well as in several cities including Multan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta. A Jamaat spokesman said 100 workers were arrested in North West Frontier Province alone.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa's headquarters at a sprawling complex in the eastern town of Muridke appeared deserted. Officials said the office, schools and hospitals it ran there had shut on Dec. 4.
A spokesman for Pakistan's central bank said late on Thursday that directives had been issued to banks to freeze JuD accounts and assets of the four men added to the UN sanctions list.
Television reports said the JuD would be banned though no official announcement has yet been made.