The Pakistani government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan has banned a total of 11 organisations located in Lahore, Bahawalpur, Karachi and Faisalabad late on Saturday for having ties with proscribed terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) as well as JuD charity wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).
The action against the organisations came days after the United Nations placed JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar in the 1267 sanctions list.
The JuD, on the other hand, is led by Hafiz Saeed, who was the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
According to reports in Pakistani media, the action was in pursuance of the government’s National Action Plan (NAP).
The organisations banned include Lahore’s Al Anfal Trust, Idara-i-Khidmat Khalaq, Al Dawatul Irshad, Mosque and Welfare Trust, Al Madinah Foundation, Muaz bin Jabal Education Trust, and Al Eesar Foundation. It also includes Al Hamd Trust located in Lahore and Faisalabad, Bahawalpur’s Al Rehmat Trust Organisation and Al Furqan Trust in Karachi.
The decision to ban the organisations was taken in a meeting between Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan and Interior Minister Ijaz Shah on Friday.
A crackdown against banned outfits was initiated in January after a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC).
Imran Khan’s government had in March this year banned eight groups. The groups include Islamic State, Al Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan, Haqqani Network, Jamaatud Dawa, Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The March decision came in view of the pressure of implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations on anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing for Pakistan.
The JeM, which was banned in 2002 by Pakistan, was involved in the 2014 Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers.
The decision came on the day three heavily-armed militants attacked the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in the port city of Gwadar in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province.
Foreign and local guests were safely evacuated from the hotel, officials said.
And on Thursday, at least five people were killed in a gun and bomb attack on a coal mine in the south-western province which has been wracked by a long-running separatist insurgency.