Fighting terror: Jamaatud Dawa assets frozen: FO

Spokesperson says Pakistan is required to freeze assets of groups under UN sanctions.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan on Thursday officially confirmed it has frozen the assets and bank accounts of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), considered to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, and several other organisations.

“JuD and some other organisations are listed by the United Nations. Pakistan, as a member of the United Nations, is under obligation to proscribe the entities and individuals that are listed,” Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told reporters at her weekly briefing.

She went on to say that under the UN sanctions, Pakistan was required to freeze assets and enforce travel restrictions on the proscribed organisations.  “We took that action.  Bank accounts of such entities and individuals have been frozen after an SRO (statutory regulatory order) was issued.”

Talking to The Express Tribune, a government official said JuD was proscribed in 2008 when the UN placed it on its list of terrorist outfits.  “However, now we have frozen JuD’s assets and imposed other restrictions on the group,” he said while requesting anonymity.

The government was initially reluctant to formally confirm the move after The Express Tribune first reported last week that JuD and the deadliest Afghan insurgent group, the Haqqani Network, were included in the list of proscribed organisations.



In a statement, Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanvir had said that JuD was a charity organisation and was not banned, further compounding the issue.

But the foreign ministry spokesperson on Thursday put at rest all confusion and confirmed that JuD and the Haqqani network were outlawed.

The move is seen as significant as in the past Pakistan was accused of following double policy on fighting the war against terrorism.

The decision to take action against JuD and Haqqani network comes just days before US President Barack Obama is due to travel to New Delhi where the issue of terrorism will be on the agenda.

During his recent visit to Pakistan, US Secretary of State John Kerry while praising Islamabad’s push against militants, called for fighting the war without any discrimination.

When asked, the spokesperson, however, insisted that Pakistan had not taken the decision under US pressure rather it was part of the new National Action Plan.

“Pakistan is taking these steps for its own sake for the protection of its own people and to eradicate terrorism from Pakistan once and for all,” she emphasised.

About the upcoming visit of Obama to India, Tasnim said Pakistan hoped that the US President would take up the issue of recent escalation by India on the Line of Control (LoC) and working boundary.

“At a time when Pakistan is in the midst of a very robust and broad operation against terrorists in North Waziristan this kind of distraction can only mean one thing that there are people who would not like to see Pakistan succeed and that is not in the interest of any one, that is not in the interest of US, India and the international community,” she contended. Asked about Indian media reports that US warned Pakistan not to carry out any attack during the visit of Obama, the spokesperson termed such reports as ‘comical.’


Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2015.