Pakistan to ban Hafiz Saeed’s JuD, Haqqani network: Reports
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to ban terror outfits Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Afghan-based Haqqani network, reports said on Thursday.
The Nawaz Sharif government, which has been under tremendous pressure to rein in terror groups emanating from the Pakistani soil, is expected to ban eight more such groups in the coming days.
India, along with the US, has been long demanding to ban Hafiz Muhammad Saeed-led JuD, which is accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Notably, New Delhi and Washington have long considered JuD as a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror outfit.Interestingly, the US had on Tuesday designated Mullah Fazlullah, chief of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), as a global terrorist and slapped sanctions on him.
The announcement came after US Secretary of State John Kerry asked Pakistan to target all terror outfits like LeT, Taliban and the Haqqani network that pose a threat to neighbouring countries as well as the US.
The Haqqani network, founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, has been blamed for the Indian embassy bombing in Kabul in 2008 that left 58 people dead, 2011 attack on the US embassy in Kabul, and several big truck bombing attempts in Afghanistan.
US and Afghan officials have repeatedly said Pakistan’s spy agency ISI covertly backed the Haqqanis to extend its influence in Afghanistan, a charge Islamabad deny.
The group was designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States in September 2012.Pakistan banned 12 new organisations days before Kerry visited Pakistan this week, officials at the Interior Ministry revealed.With this latest addition, the number of proscribed outfits in Pakistan will reach to 72.
