In a countrywide swoop against militant groups, Pakistan has detained more than one hundred activists of banned organizations and seized control of around 400 seminaries and assets.
State Minister for Interior, Shehryar Afridi says the Government crackdown – coming amid heightened Pakistan-Indian tensions in the wake of Pulwama militant attack in Indian administered part of Jammu and Kashmir – will continue for two weeks.
“Pakistan’s policy is very clear against terrorism and extremism. Pakistan will not allow anybody to use its land for any ill purposes,” he said.
Pakistan has denied international pressure as a reason behind the crackdown but media reports say Islamabad issued an order to streamline the procedure for implementation of UNSC sanctions against designated individuals and entities.
“Over the years the sanctions regime of the United Nations Security Council has evolved. A key measure of these sanctions regimes is ‘assets freeze’ under which states are required to freeze or seize the assets of designated entities and individuals as soon as they are designated by the relevant UNSC Sanctions Committee,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Faisal “from now onwards, all kinds of assets and properties of all banned organizations will be in the government’s control.”
India says a Pakistan-based militant group Jaesh e Mohammad is behind the Pulwama attack which on February 14 struck a convoy of Indian security personnel, killing at least 40. Since then the two nuclear-armed neighbors have been engaged in a tense standoff.
Analysts say it was a Kashmiri militant who carried out the attack and term the unresolved Kashmir dispute and New Delhi’s persecution of freedom-seeking communities as reasons behind upsurge in militancy.
Pakistan has also recently outlawed UNSC proscribed groups including Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its charity, Filah-e-Insaaniat Foundation.
A Voice of America report, citing unnamed Pakistani officials, said Thursday that two brothers of Maulana Masood Azhar, who founded and runs JeM, are among the detainees.
Pakistan has also vowed to implement its National Action Plan to tamp down militancy and terrorism.
