The government formally took control on Sunday of the main operational facility of the charity allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks, underscoring its ongoing effort to ease international pressure over militancy on its soil.
The overwhelmingly Muslim majority nation had already closed or taken over several offices, schools and other properties of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charity and detained much of its central leadership. On Sunday, a newly appointed government administrator took over the 75-acre compound in Muridke in Punjab, where the group has conducted and coordinated much of its business.
India claims the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba staged the November attacks that killed 164 people in Mumbai. Soon after, the UN declared that Jamaat-ud-Dawa_ popular with many Pakistanis for its relief work _ was a front for Lashkar, prompting Pakistan's crackdown.
Salman Ejaz, a senior Punjab government official, said all assets and properties of the charity in the province were now under the regional government's control. Most of the assets, offices and operations of the group are in Punjab.
"The government has appointed an officer as administrator for all the assets," Ejaz said. "The schools and the hospitals will keep on working as they are."'
Ejaz said the administrator and other officials would try to gauge and map out the extent of the charity's operations_ especially its bank accounts, which Pakistan has ordered frozen.
Asked why it took so long for the government to take over the Muridke site, officials said it was a complicated task. After the initial crackdown and assessment of the group's operations, "we are going for total regulation under government control,' Punjab Home Secretary Nadeem Hasan said. "All things cannot happen in one go.' A spokesman for the charity could not immediately be reached for comment. Initially, there were several relatively small protests over the government's moves against the charity, but that fervour appears to have died down in recent days.
Indian officials also could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.
AFP adds:-Pakistan on Sunday appointed Khaqan Babar an administrator to oversee the headquarters of JuD. The government named official would run the schools and hospital at the sprawling headquarters of Jamaat ud-Dawa, senior government official Khawaja Haris told AFP.
JuD official Khalid Walid, Saeed son-in-law of Hafiz Saeed head of the charity currently under preventive detention, confirmed the takeover, saying Babar's would "look after the administrative and financial matters of the schools and hospital in Muridke."Haris said Babar would also be tasked with making sure JuD-run institutions were not involved in any illegal activities.
Relations between India and Pakistan have been strained since the Mumbai attacks. New Delhi has accused "official agencies" in Pakistan of involvement in the bloodbath - a claim that authorities here have vehemently denied.
Pakistan has set up a high-powered team to review all information and evidence provided by India in connection with the attacks, which killed 174 people including nine of the gunmen.
Comments
Comments are closed.