Pakistani group under fire after India attacks
Saturday, 6 December 2008
MURIDIKE, (Pakistan), Dec 5 (AP): Pakistan's vow to crack down on militants behind the Mumbai attacks may meet an early test with the Islamist charity accused by the US of being the front group for the prime suspects.
A move against Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which runs schools, clinics and post-disaster recovery programs, risks a Muslim backlash that could destabilise the country's shaky secular government, analysts say.
The group - subject to media scrutiny since the Mumbai slaughter - invited reporters to its sprawling headquarters on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore Thursday to stress it had severed its links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed by India for the attacks.
"It is true we had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba in the past, but please remember, the past is the past," said spokesman Abdullah Muntazir. "We are the victim of baseless Indian propaganda, we are not involved in attacks in India, we are just doing welfare work and nothing else."
Lashkar-e-Taiba is believed to have been created with the help of Pakistan's intelligence agency in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region. It was banned in 2002 by Islamabad amid U.S pressure after New Delhi linked it to an attack on its parliament that helped pushed the nuclear-armed neighbours close to war.
Soon after the ban, the group changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa, according to the US State Department, which in 2006 listed it as a terrorist organisation and blocked its assets.
Its leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, was placed under house arrest at least twice by former President Pervez Musharraf to stop him from making incendiary speeches, though he wasn't charged with a crime and now fronts Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
The charity publicly denounces the killing of civilians but makes no secret of its backing of groups fighting in Kashmir and suspected in terrorist attacks in India.
After his release in 2002 from nine months of house arrest, Saeed vowed to continue providing "physical support" to militants in Kashmir and said every Muslim was obliged to wage holy war in the territory.
He has vocally opposed peace talks with India and denounced the US-led war on terror as a war on Islam in a November posting on the group's Web site.
And while it denies ties to militants, suspicions remain that the charity may be channeling some of its followers toward Lashkar-e-Taiba, which US commanders say has also begun attacking their forces in Afghanistan.
A move against Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which runs schools, clinics and post-disaster recovery programs, risks a Muslim backlash that could destabilise the country's shaky secular government, analysts say.
The group - subject to media scrutiny since the Mumbai slaughter - invited reporters to its sprawling headquarters on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore Thursday to stress it had severed its links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed by India for the attacks.
"It is true we had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba in the past, but please remember, the past is the past," said spokesman Abdullah Muntazir. "We are the victim of baseless Indian propaganda, we are not involved in attacks in India, we are just doing welfare work and nothing else."
Lashkar-e-Taiba is believed to have been created with the help of Pakistan's intelligence agency in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region. It was banned in 2002 by Islamabad amid U.S pressure after New Delhi linked it to an attack on its parliament that helped pushed the nuclear-armed neighbours close to war.
Soon after the ban, the group changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa, according to the US State Department, which in 2006 listed it as a terrorist organisation and blocked its assets.
Its leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, was placed under house arrest at least twice by former President Pervez Musharraf to stop him from making incendiary speeches, though he wasn't charged with a crime and now fronts Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
The charity publicly denounces the killing of civilians but makes no secret of its backing of groups fighting in Kashmir and suspected in terrorist attacks in India.
After his release in 2002 from nine months of house arrest, Saeed vowed to continue providing "physical support" to militants in Kashmir and said every Muslim was obliged to wage holy war in the territory.
He has vocally opposed peace talks with India and denounced the US-led war on terror as a war on Islam in a November posting on the group's Web site.
And while it denies ties to militants, suspicions remain that the charity may be channeling some of its followers toward Lashkar-e-Taiba, which US commanders say has also begun attacking their forces in Afghanistan.