Pak bans Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud-Dawa, Charity arm Falah-e-Insaniat

Pakistan government has formally banned Hafiz Saeed-led terror group Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) almost two weeks after announcing a ban on JuD and its charity wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FiF).

An official notification released by the Interior Ministry of Pakistan in which Hafiz Saeed’s terror group have been banned under Pak’s Anti Terrorism Act of 1997 along with the other banned terror groups in the country.

‘This list is updated as of 05th March 2019 and prepared by NACTA based on the Notifications issued by Ministry of Interior,’ a note written at the bottom of the list.

Pak government has released the official notification on 5th March in which the two organisations JuD and FiF have been listed on 69th and 70th number.

However, this action has come days after when Indian media reported that JuD and its charity wing FiF continue to be only on the watchlist since January 2017.

Now, the two terror outfits have been moved to the list of proscribed outfits.

Earlier on Tuesday, Pak authorities had also detained Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar’s son and brother.

Amid tensions between India and Pakistan over the Pulwama terror attack, Pakistan had claimed on 21st February that it had banned JuD and FiF.

As per Pak officials, Hafiz Saeed’s terror group includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance service. Also, the two terror organisations have around 50,000 volunteers and hundreds of paid workers.

It is to be believed that JuD was the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, which killed at least 166 people. It had been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

Meanwhile, the NCTA has so far banned 70 terror groups and a sizeable number of these organisations are based in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

-With PTI inputs

Also read: Jaish chief Masood Azhar’s brother, son among 44 detained by Pakistan