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Furnish evidence, says Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday said it was continuing the crackdown on the Jamat-ud-Dawah, the Laskhar-e-Taiba front organisation designated by the United Nations Security Council as a “terrorist” entity, locking down its offices after placing the group’s leader Hafiz Saeed under house arrest.

At the same time, the government asked India to furnish evidence to back its allegations that Pakistani nationals were involved in the Mumbai attacks in order to take its investigations forward.

“As regards the spate of allegations concerning the involvement of certain individuals of Pakistani origin in Mumbai terrorist attacks, the Government of Pakistan has already initiated investigations on its own … However, our own investigations cannot proceed beyond a certain point without provision of credible information and evidence pertaining to Mumbai attacks,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a statement.

India has blamed the Pakistan-based LeT for the attacks, and the Security Council decision against the JuD is believed to have been taken on an Indian request.

The Minister said as it was obligatory for all states to comply with international obligations arising from Security Council decisions, Pakistan initiated a process to comply with the listing of the JuD and other entities as well as individuals by the Sanctions Committee.

But Pakistan, according to the Minister, had received no evidence from India yet. He highlighted this in a phone conversation with British Foreign Minister David Miliband.

Saeed has been detained under a law called Maintenance of Public Order.

Days before the Security Council decision, Pakistan security forces raided one office of the JuD in Muzaffarabad, reportedly taking into custody another person named by the Council, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is suspected by Indian investigators of having masterminded the Mumbai outrage.

“Any criminal investigation proceeds from the scene of crime to the criminal. This is standard investigation procedure,” Mr. Qureshi said, reiterating Pakistan’s offer of a “joint investigation mechanism” to probe the Mumbai attacks.

“As far as Pakistan’s own investigations are concerned, these will be pursued in accordance with our own laws. Pakistan is committed to [the] internationally respected concept of ‘due process’,” the Minister said.

On the political front, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif called an urgent all-party conference in Lahore to discuss the crackdown on the JuD.

Sources privy to the proceedings said Mr. Sharif sent out a clear message that the crackdown would continue, and could affect all those political parties that had any link with the JuD.

According to the sources, the message was meant for all political parties in Punjab where the JuD network is strong and where several offices of the organisation have been shut down.

But the message, the sources said, was especially directed towards religious political parties such as the Jamat-e-Islami and the Jamait-e-Ulema Islami.

There is some outrage in the media at the action against the JuD, which has successfully projected itself among a majority of Pakistanis as a charity organisation working for the poor and the needy.

But Defence Minister Chaduhary Ahmed Mukhtar did some plainspeaking with journalists on Friday. Asked about the crackdown, he said Pakistan had to act or else would have been declared a “terrorist state.”

“There would have been sanctions on us. We cannot fight the whole world. We can tackle our enemies, but our economy would not be able to withstand sanctions,” the Minister said.

The State Bank of Pakistan has said it ordered a freeze on the assets and bank accounts of the JuD.

Police are said to have cordoned off the Muridke headquarters of the group. According to journalists from the area, the premises had been vacated days before the crackdown.

The government has not yet announced a formal ban on the group.

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