Pakistan late on Tuesday announced that it had begun a crackdown on militant Muslim groups, detaining 44 members of banned organizations, including close relatives of the leader of a group blamed for a deadly bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir last month.
The Pakistani Ministry of Interior said that it was a move to “speed up action against all proscribed organizations.”
Officials said it was part of a long-planned drive against militant groups, not a response to Indian anger over what New Delhi calls Islamabad’s failure to rein in militant groups operating on Pakistani soil.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pakistan is facing pressure from global powers to act against groups carrying out attacks in India, including Jaish-e-Mohammed, which claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack that killed at least 40 paramilitary police.
The incident led to the most serious conflict in years between the nuclear-armed neighbors, with cross-border air strikes and a brief dogfight over the skies of Kashmir.
Tension cooled when Pakistan returned a downed Indian pilot on Friday last week.
In a further sign that tensions were easing, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a delegation would visit New Delhi next week to discuss an accord on Sikh pilgrims visiting holy sites in Pakistan.
The interior ministry said that close relatives of Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar had been detained in “preventive custody” as part of the crackdown.
It named them as Mufti Abdul Raoof and Hamad Azhar, who one ministry official said was the leader’s son.
On Tuesday, Pakistan placed two charities linked to Hafiz Saeed, founder of a militant organization that the US and India have blamed for numerous deadly attacks, including a siege by gunmen in Mumbai, India, in 2008 that killed 166 people, on the nation’s official banned list.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat charities were placed on the list after the government announced the restriction last month.
Some of the people detained were named by India in a dossier it gave to Pakistan after last month’s bombing, Pakistani Interior Secretary Azam Suleman said.
“We are investigating them and if we get more evidence, more proof against them, they will be proceeded against according to law and if we don’t get any proof their detention will end,” Suleman said.
Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi told CNN last week that Azhar was in Pakistan and was “really unwell.”
The US, Britain and France last month proposed that the UN Security Council blacklist Azhar.
A UN Security Council vote is due to be held in the middle of this month, but Pakistan’s staunch ally, China, a council member, has blocked previous attempts by world powers to sanction the Azhar.
Many Pakistani groups and individuals are under UN sanctions, including the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group.
There was no immediate official reaction in India to the arrests in Pakistan.
However, an Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism.
“We have all seen this done for the last several decades now. How many times has Hafiz Saeed been arrested and let out?” the official said. “And have they taken action against Jaish camps?”
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