2,000 suspected militants under scanner in Pak

Security agencies are closely monitoring the activities of over 2,000 suspected militants to check growing terrorism in country.

Security agencies in Pakistan were closely monitoring over 2,000 suspected militants who have been barred from leaving their hometown in a stepped-up effort to check growing terrorism in country.

HT Image

Interior Ministry spokesperson Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema said the government has placed over 2,000 activists of 18 outlawed organisations on a watch list, effectively barring them from leaving their hometowns without permission of the district coordination officers.

He said the security agencies were monitoring the activities of people on the watch list to curb their involvement in terrorist and anti-state activities.

"People on the watch list have submitted affidavits, giving assurance to limit their involvement in political activities, public meetings, anti-government campaigns and even travel outside their home-towns without prior permission," Cheema told mediapersons at a weekly briefing on the law and order situation in the country.

"If they are found to be involved in violating pledges on the affidavits, they can be arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act, he said. The spokesperson said the monitoring of the activists of the banned organisations started after the launch of a special campaign against terrorism and extremism in July 2005 and the number of activists under surveillance had gone up to 2,000.

The 18 outlawed organisations include Al -Qaeda, Jaish-i-Muhammad, Lashkar-i-Tayyaba among others.