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RT Correspondents
KARACHI/HYDERABAD: The authorities shut offices and arrested
scores of activists of Jamaat-ud-Dawa as international pressure
mounted for firm action against militants blamed for the Mumbai
attacks, news reports said on Friday. Some 250 activists of
the outfit have so far been arrested. The overnight raids
followed Pakistan announcing it would abide by a U.N. decision
placing Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, on its
terrorism sanctions list of people and organizations linked
to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
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 U.N. list and will
be subject to sanctions freezing assets and restricting travel,
but a local news channels reported one of them is dead and
another has been in a Saudi jail for the past three years.
An intelligence official told an England-based news agency
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 said: “I
think they could have detained him to relieve pressure, but
I don’t know the exact whereabouts of the Maulana.”
In various cities of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir,
police raided offices of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity regarded
as a Lashkar front.
Police raided JuD offices 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.
In Benazeerabad, 19 members of JuD were arrested, whereas
2 madarsas, one charity hospital and two offices were also
sealed by the officials on Friday. The arrested men including,
Syed Abdul Waheed, Hafiz Liaquat, Nadeem Ahmed, Manzoor, Muhammad
Yahya, Qadir Bux, Muhammad Ismail, Tariq, Rashid,, Muhammad
Waris, Abdul Sattar, Allah Bux, Lal Khan, Noor Hussain, Bashir
Ahmed, Munawar Ahmed and others were shifted by the police
to unknown place.
In Sukkur, police on Friday sealed off the office of Jamaatud
Dawa at Ghanta Ghar Chowk and arrested party’s two local
leaders Maulana Umaruddin Malik and Hidayatullah Malik. RPO
Sukkur, Ramazan Channa, told media that police have launched
a major crackdown against the banned organization on the directives
of the government. He informed that there was only single
office of the party in Sukkur city.
In Badin, police team raided the party office in Golarchi
and sealed it off. No arrest could be made due to absent of
the organization activists at the office. In another raid,
the police sealed off the building of Al-Dawa Model School
and its office in the city but they could not
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