To implement the sanctions imposed by the National Security Committee (NSC) on proscribed organisations involved in terror financing, the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) claimed on Wednesday to have achieved a major breakthrough in its ongoing crackdown against such organisations.
According to a CTD Punjab spokesman, chief of banned Jama'at-ud-Dawa (JuD) Hafiz Saeed and other leaders had been booked in cases of terrorism financing. "Cases have been registered in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan for collection of funds for terrorism financing through assets/properties made and held in the names of trusts/ nonprofit organizations (NPO) including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawa'at-ul-Irshad Trust and Muaz-Bin-Jabal Trust etc," he added.
"A large scale investigation has been launched into financing matters of proscribed organizations including Jama'at-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba in connection with the implementation of the UN sanctions against these designated entities and persons as directed by the NSC in its meeting on 1st January 2019 which was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan for implementing the National Action Plan (NAP)," the spokesman continued.
Sharing details about the cases, the spokesman said that on 1st and 2nd July, the CTD Punjab registered 23 cases against the leadership of Jama'at-ud-Dawa (JuD), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FiF) for making assets from terrorism financing through trusts/NPOs including Dawat-ul-Irshad Trust, Muaz-Bin-Jabal Trust, Al-Anfaal Trust, Al-Hamd Trust and Al-Madina Foundation Trust.
"Different leaders of JuD and LeT have been booked including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdul Rehman Makki, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ameer Hamza, Muhammad Yahya Aziz, Muhammad Naeem Shaikh, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, D. Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Muhammad Ali and Abdul Ghaffar and others," he revealed.
Similarly, he added, a large scale investigation has been launched into the matters of JuD, LeT and FIF regarding their holdings and use of these trusts to raise funds for terrorism financing. "They made these assets from funds of terrorism financing and held and used these assets to raise more funds for further terrorism financing."
Hence, they committed multiple offenses of terrorism financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, the spokesman declared. They will be prosecuted in anti-terrorism courts for the commission of these offenses. The assets of these organisations have already been taken over by the government in compliance with the UN's sanctions, concluded the CTD spokesman.
In February, Prime Minister Imran Khan had chaired a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting and discussed the geostrategic and national security environment in the light of Pulwama incident and its aftermath. After the meeting, an order was issued to accelerate anti-terrorism operations in the country to re-establish the state's writ and the reinstatement of a ban on the Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and its charity arm, the Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF).
In February, former president Mamnoon Hussain had promulgated an ordinance amending the Anti-Terrorism Act with regards to proscription of terrorist individuals and organisations to include entities listed by the UN Security Council. The move had resulted in the declaration of JuD and FIF as proscribed groups.
However, the two Hafiz Saeed-linked organisations had slipped off the national list of proscribed organisations after the presidential ordinance lapsed. This time, the two organisations have been notified as proscribed organisations by the PTI-led government itself, through the Ministry of Interior. Before the government's official ban, the two organisations had been under watch by the Ministry of Interior under Section 11-D-(1), read with Schedule-II of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019

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