Pakistan has imposed international travel ban on Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and 37 activists of his organisation which is accused of working as a front for the defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In this regard ministry of interior has placed names of Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and 37 others on the Exit Control List, two days after he was placed under house arrest.
The ministry has forwarded letters to all provincial governments and the Federal Investigation Agency, which included names of all 38 individuals placed on the ECL.
All of them were said to be affiliated with JuD or Lashkar-e-Taiba. On Monday, authorities had placed Hafiz Saeed under house arrest along with four other individuals, namely Abdullah Ubaid, Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Niaz.
In a notification, the Ministry of Interior said it had “placed Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) on the Watch List as per UNSC 1267 Sanctions and have listed these organisations in the Second Schedule of the ATA 1997 (as amended).”
“Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdullah Ubaid, Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Niaz are reportedly active members of the aforementioned organisations within the meaning of Section 11EEE(1) of the ATA 1997 (as amended),” said the ministry.
“As such, they must be placed under preventive detention,” it said.
Police took Saeed away from a mosque in Lahore late Monday and escorted him to his residence where they are said to be holding him under house arrest.
Saeed, however, told reporters that he would challenge his detention in court.
“My detention orders are unlawful and we will challenge them in the court,” Saeed told reporters before he was led away by police.
‘Policy decision’
The ministry’s detention order surfaced hours after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar hinted that a crackdown was imminent.
He told reporters in Islamabad on Monday that, given the group had been under observation for years and was blacklisted internationally, Pakistan was “under obligation to take some action”.
Following the house arrest, the military’s media wing clarified that the decision to place restrictions on the JuD chief was a policy decision.
“This was a policy decision taken by the state in the national interest and several institutions will have to play their role. This news came yesterday and in the coming days more details will be available,” DG ISPR Major General Asif Ghafoor told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.
Gen Ghafoor said there was no foreign pressure behind the decision and it was taken in the national interest.
No need of endorsement from India over Hafiz Saeed: FO
Reacting to a statement of Ministry of External Affairs, India, regarding detention of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, spokesperson of the Interior Ministry Wednesday said Pakistan does not need any certification or endorsement from India over the recent actions it has taken in relation to Hafiz Saeed.
The spokesperson said that as a matter of record, the actions taken by the Government of Pakistan have been carried out as per obligations vis-a-vis listing of Jamat-ud-Dawa under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
He said that various actions that needed to be taken under the relevant Resolution i.e., arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze were not carried out for some reasons by the previous governments.
The spokesperson said that India has constantly been using Hafiz Saeed’s political activities as a tool to malign Pakistan.
The international community should take notice and understand that Pakistan is a democratic society where judiciary takes free, independent and transparent decisions.
If indeed India is serious about its allegations, it should come up with concrete evidence against Hafiz Mohammad Saeed which is sustainable in a court of law in Pakistan or for that matter anywhere in the world.
Mere casting aspersions and levelling allegations without any corroborating evidence would not help the cause of peace in the region, said the spokesman interior ministry.
The spokesperson further said that Pakistan is still looking for justification and explanation from India as to how all the accused involved in Samjhota Express bombing, where 68 Pakistani nationals lost their lives, have gone scot-free.
The involvement of Indian Army’s Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit and Hindu extremist leaders like Swami Aseemanand of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the Samjhota Express terrorist incident is a matter of record and has been widely reported in the international press without any positive response from India.
