NEW DELHI, March 4 - Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation have not been banned by Pakistan despite its announcement a fortnight ago and the two organisations continue to be only in the list of groups under watch.
According to the website of the Pakistan government�s National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA), which was updated on Monday, Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) are organisations under watch by Ministry of Interior under section 11-D-(1), Schedule-II of the Anti Terrorism Act 1997.
The NCTA website says the notification regarding JuD and FIF putting them under the list of organisation under watch was issued on February 21. However, before that the website had said that both JuD and FIF were placed on the watch list in January 2017.
On February 21, Pakistan government had announced that it had banned the JuD and FIF, amid intense global pressure to rein in the militant groups following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans.
�This implies that Pakistan has lied on the ban on Jamat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation. In fact, it has just altered the date of the watch list placement to fool the world,� a senior security official said.
A spokesman of Pakistan�s Interior Ministry had said on February 21 that the decision to ban these two groups was taken during a meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
�It was decided during the meeting to accelerate action against the proscribed organisations,� he had said in a statement. � PTI
