Pakistan has banned a well-known Islamic charity implicated in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Pakistan's prime minister announced the move after meeting with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
Pakistani officials say they have ordered provincial officials to begin closing down Jamaat ud Dawa offices and facilities, but it is unclear how far-reaching the crackdown will be.
The prominent Islamic charity claims to operate 172 schools, with more than 20,000 students in all major Pakistani cities. The group also says it runs six hospitals and more than 100 medical clinics.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani released a brief statement saying Pakistan would "fulfill its international obligations" under a U.N. resolution that calls for freezing assets, banning travel and stopping arms shipments to terrorist groups.
On Wednesday, the United Nations accused Jamaat ud Dawa of being a front for Lashkar e Taiba - the militant group blamed in the Mumbai attacks. The world body also added four individuals to the banned list for links to LeT.
One of the four, Jamaat ud Dawa leader Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, told reporters the United Nations had hastily passed judgment on his organization.
He says we do not accept this judgment. He says the United Nations did not bother to listen to Pakistan or to our party in this decision.
Saeed said the group will petition the United Nations to reconsider.
Jamaat ud Dawa describes itself as a conservative Islamic charity that focuses on serving needy Pakistanis. It played a significant role in the massive relief efforts following Pakistan's devastating 2005 earthquake in Kashmir and more recently in the earthquake in Baluchistan.
But the group has also long been suspected of serving as a front for Lashkar e Taiba after it was banned by the Pakistani government in 2001.
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A U.N. Security Council panel declared Wednesday that a Pakistan-based charity (JuD) is a front group for the terrorist organization blamed in the attacks on Mumbai that killed 171 people.
The U.N. identified all four individuals as leaders of Lashkar. They include Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, operations chief and the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai siege whose arrest was announced Wednesday. The others are Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the leader of the charity; Haji Muhammad Ashraf, Lashkar's chief of finance; and Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, a financier with Lashkar.
Among the sanctions imposed on the group and the four individuals by the Security Council's al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee were an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo on the individuals. The panel is authorized to make such decisions on behalf of the Security Council.
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