Banned Jamatud Dawa free to collect hides, donations

At least seven JD camps are operating in plain view in the city ahead of Eid.

LAHORE: Despite the Interior Ministry’s recently renewal of the ban on militant outfits from collecting funds and hides of sacrificial animals, Jamatud Dawa (JD) is running a prominent public campaign to collect money and hides in the city ahead of Eidul Azha, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The interior minister, through a notification to the Home Department and Punjab Police, ordered that the ban on 16 groups, including JD, be enforced. He said these groups used the funds they got from such campaigns on terrorist activities.

The JD has at least seven camps to collect money and hides in the city: two on The Mall, one close to Hall Road and one in front of Masjide Shuhada; two at Moon Market in Iqbal Town; one in front of Masjide Qadsia near Chauburji; one on Canal Road; and one in Township.

They are marked with big banners of Jamatud Dawa or its offshoot, the Falahe Insaniat Foundation (FIF). The camps also fly the JD flag with its iconic sword image. The collection campaign is called the Sailaab Mutasireen Qurbani Programme (Sacrifice programme for the flood-affected). The JD has also printed pamphlets for these camps which ask for Rs8,000 for the sacrifice of one goat, Rs35,000 for a cow and Rs5,000 for a share in a cow. “Helpless, crying, abandoned, defenceless and dependent humanity is waiting for your cooperation,” reads one banner.

A grade 18 police officer currently serving in Lahore told The Express Tribune that there are standing police orders to stop the activities of banned outfits like the JD. He said these organisations are not allowed to circulate their literature, hoist their flags or give lectures.

A JD activist at the Moon Market camp said they had been functioning under the banner of Jamatud Dawa and no policeman had ever questioned them. “No one has asked us to remove flags or banners or to stop using the name Jamatud Dawa,” he said.

Muhammad Adil, head of the camp on Hall Road, said the local police had asked them to take down the JD flag at the camp, but told them they could continue collecting under the FIF banner. He said they had been running the camps since August. “So far at this camp we have received donations for the sacrifice of one cow, and for eight shares in a cow’s sacrifice,” he said.

Adil said the JD would continue its work regardless of the ban. “God will protect us from any danger for we are working for His sake,” he said.

Asked how the JD was able to offer a goat sacrifice for just Rs8,000, which is about half the market price for a goat in Lahore, he said that they bought hundreds of goats one month ago. The camps in Lahore are running under the supervision of Abu Hashim of the JD, he said.

Another JD activist said that the group would set up a number of stalls across Lahore on the eve of Eidul Azha to collect hides.

Iqbal Town Superintendent of Police Romail Akram said that so far he had not received any specific orders to stop the JD camps, but there was a general order to stop banned organisations’ activities. He denied that the police were patronising the banned outfit in collecting funds and campaigning for hides.

The JD was banned on the recommendations of the UN in 2008 because it was believed to have a role in the Mumbai attacks that year. It then started operating under a new name   the Falahe Insaniat Foundation – a tactic it has used before to get around a ban.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2010.