[Reader-list] Pakistan bans Jamaat-ud-Dawa, shuts offices

[Javed]

Pakistan bans Jamaat-ud-Dawa, shuts offices
11 Dec 2008, 2048 hrs IST, AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has banned the charity group
Jamaat-ud-Dawa and has ordered the closure of all offices of the
group, a TV channel reported.

The Dawn News TV channel quoted Rehman Malik, advisor to the prime
minister on interior affairs, as saying that Pakistan has banned the
group with immediate effect and its activities were under observation.

A government official said that authorities had been ordered to close
the offices of Jamaat-u-Dawa.

"Instructions have been issued to seal Jamaat-ud-Dawa offices in all
the four provinces as well as Azad Kashmir," said interior ministry
spokesman Shahidullah Baig, referring to Pakistani-administered
Kashmir.

"Now the orders will be implemented."

Earlier in the day, Pakistan said it will fulfil its obligations under
a UN Security Council statement targeting four members of
Lashkar-e-Taiba and charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa linked to the banned
Islamist group.

The statement, which gave no further details, came after the UN
Security Council sanctions committee targeted four members of the
group blamed for the Mumbai attacks, and a charity widely viewed as
its political arm, for an assets freeze and other sanctions.

"Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that Pakistan has
taken note of the designation of certain individuals and entities by
the UN under 1267 resolution of the UN Security Council and would
fulfil its international obligations," a government statement said.