ISLAMABAD: The government has launched a crackdown against the members of proscribe organization including Jaish-e-Mohammad accused by India of carrying out the Pulwama suicide attack on Indian military.
In the renewed crackdown the government had detained 44 members of banned outfits including Mufti Abdul Raoof and Hamad Azhar — the brother and son of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader Masood Azhar, respectively.
Sources in Interior Ministry said that the crackdown was launched under the National Action Plan, saying that the JeM leaders were put under “preventive detention” for investigation.
They said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would decide about the arrest of JeM leader Masood Azhar within 24 hours.
“In order to implement National Action Plan (NAP), a high-level meeting was held in the Ministry of Interior on March 4, attended by all representatives of all provincial governments,” said a statement by the ministry. “These actions will continue, as per the decisions taken in the National Security Committee (NSC) while reviewing NAP.”
Earlier while addressing a press conference Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi and Ministry of Interior Secretary Azam Suleman Khan said that the crackdown was across the board. “We don’t want to give the impression that we are against one organisation,” Afridi told media.
He acknowledged that some people who have been detained — including Raoof and Azhar — are named in the dossier handed by India to Pakistan on the Pulwama attack. “It does not mean that action is being taken against only those individuals who are mentioned in the dossier.”
The interior ministry secretary further said: “If we have to take over any [organisation’s] assets, we will do so. Assets can be taken over of organisations already declared as prescribed, under the Anti Terrorism Act, 1997.
“If we obtain any further evidence or if we have to investigate any organisation, the government can take any organisation into custody at any time.”
The secretary was also questioned by a reporter regarding the status of Jamaatud Dawa, which the reporter said is still “under a watch list” according to Indian media and not yet proscribed.
Furthermore, the reporter inquired as to why notification was issued by the information ministry and not the interior ministry when the government’s decision to reinstate the ban on the organisation was announced on February 21.
The secretary chalked the delay down to paperwork and confirmed that the ban will take effect within 24 hours and a notification, this time, will be issued by the interior ministry.
When pressed by journalists to reveal more names of those detained, the secretary said: “We cannot reveal any more names at this point. Those we have taken into preventive detention will be investigated, and if we learn more names along the way, those will be added accordingly.”
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