JuD HQ taken over by Pak government

Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Jan 25 (PTI) In a major crackdown, Pakistan government Sunday took control of the sprawling headquarters of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) blamed for the Mumbai attacks, in Muridke near Lahore.

Khakan Babar, recently appointed by the government of
Pakistan's Punjab province as the Chief Administrator, took
over the JuD's Markaz-e-Taiba headquarters at Muridke, about
30 kms from Lahore.

The process was completed in the presence of Lahore's
Commissioner, the district police chief, an official of the
Auqaf or religious affairs department and a police contingent.
Babar will supervise and monitor all activities at the JuD's
headquarters, Dawn News channel reported.

Babar, his eight-member staff and about a dozen policemen
will be housed in the Markaz-e-Taiba complex that includes a
school, a college and a hospital.

A spokesman for the Markaz-e-Taiba described the
appointment of the administrator as a "takeover" done under
international pressure.

Pakistan's Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik had said
the JuD was banned shortly after the UN Security Council
declared it a front for the LeT in December last year.

However, diplomatic sources told PTI that the Pakistan
government had not yet issued any formal notification banning
the group.

JuD chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and several other top
leaders of the group are currently under house arrest. Their
detention was recently extended for two more months.

But, there have been reports that Saeed and other JuD
leaders were allowed to move out of their homes on several
occasions.

The Pakistan government has claimed that a total of 124
members of the JuD and other banned extremist groups have been
detained while dozens of JuD offices have been sealed across
the country.

However, the government has said it can take legal action
against the JuD leaders only if India provides proof of their
involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.

Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist captured during
the Mumbai strikes, had revealed during interrogation that he
and nine other attackers, who were killed by the Indian
security forces, had received training at the LeT camps in
Pakistan. PTI RHL