Author: PTI
Publication: The Statesman
Date: November 6, 2011
URL: http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=389013&catid=37
The Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a front organisation
for LeT which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is not included in a new
list of 31 banned extremist and terrorist groups released by Pakistan's interior
ministry.
The interior ministry released the list of
banned organisations yesterday as part of efforts to bar such groups from
collecting the hides of animals sacrificed during the Id-ul-Azha festival.
Hundreds of hides collected every year by members of the groups are sold to
raise funds.
Though the Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba was included
in the new list, the JuD was not on it.
In the wake of the Mumbai attacks that killed
166 people, the UN Security Council had declared the JuD a front for the LeT.
After the Mumbai attacks, Pakistani leaders
like interior minister Mr Rehman Malik insisted that the JuD had been banned.
However, during a hearing in the Lahore High Court in 2009, a senior law officer
admitted that no notification had been issued to ban the JuD.
The new list of banned groups includes Jaish-e-Mohammed
and its front organisation Khuddam-ul-Islam, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and its
front organisation Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, al-Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan,
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Jaafria Pakistan,
Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi and Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
Other groups on the list are Tehrik-e-Islami,
Jamiat-ul-Ansar, Jamiat-ul-Furqan, Khair-un-Naas International Trust, Islamic
Students Movement of Pakistan, Islami Tehreek Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Islam, Ansar-ul-Islam,
Haji Namdar Group, Balochistan Liberation Army, Balochistan Republican Army,
Balochistan Liberation Front, Lashkar-e-Balochistan, Balochistan Liberation
United Front and Balochistan Musallah Difa Tanzeem.
New additions to the list included People's
Aman Committee of Karachi, Shia Tulaba Action Committee of Gilgit, Markaz
Sabeel Organisation of Gilgit and Tanzeem-e-Naujawanan-e-Sunnat of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The interior ministry warned that any members
of the banned groups found collecting animal hides during Id-ul-Azha would
be booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Members of the banned groups cannot assemble,
maintain offices, continue their activities and operate bank accounts, an
official statement said. The ministry said all persons who want to collect
hides will have to obtain permission from the district administration chiefs
or district magistrates. Traders involved in purchasing hides were directed
to deal only with sellers who had permission from authorities to collect hides.