Pak won't wash its hands of Jamat, Lashkar

By allowing the Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) to work covertly, the security establishment of Pakistan has again signaled that it will not wash its hands off what it considers as strategic assets against India. Rajesh Ahuja reports.

By allowing the Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) to work covertly, the security establishment of Pakistan has again signaled that it will not wash its hands off what it considers as strategic assets against India.

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The JuD, the parent organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), is not mentioned in the latest list of 31 banned terror outfits, released by the Interior Ministry of Pakistan.

According Indian security sources, the JuD has continued its activities unabated even after it was put under the sanction regime by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in December 2008. Immediately after the UNSC decision, it renamed itself as 'Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool' (movement for defending the honour of God). Thereafter it again rebranded itself 'Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awal' (movement for the safeguarding of the first centre of prayer).

The JuD was also in the forefront of relief efforts during floods in Pakistan. During floods it mounted relief efforts under the banner of Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.

In fact, a controversy erupted when a senior US Agency for International Development (USAID) officer visited a relief camp in Sukkur area of Pakistani province Sindh during the 2010 floods. The incident was reported in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

The paper also reported that the US embassy in Pakistan denied that the camp was run by a JuD front. But a JuD spokesperson claimed that the USAID official delivered two truckloads of supplies to the camp. "By keeping the JuD out, the Pakistani security establishment has signaled that any attempt by the JuD to show itself as social or welfare organisation will be encouraged," said an intelligence source.

After the UNSC sanctions, JuD websites in Urdu and English were shut by the cyber crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan.

Besides, shutting the websites, JuD headquarter in Muridke, around 30 km from Lahore continued working normally.

During the August-September 2011 floods in Sindh again, the JuD had been the one to run relief camps. There were banners and flags of the JuD at the camp. Doctors and volunteers at the camps had openly claimed they were part of JuD.