Pak police asked to monitor Hafeez Saeed-led JuD's fundraising activities

JuD is making efforts to collect funds through fitrana, zakat and sadkaats (money given by Muslims as charity).

Lahore

: Pakistan's Punjab government has asked police to keep a close watch on the fundraising activities of JuD, led by Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, through charities at mosques and other places.

Punjab Home Department has directed top officials of police to provide details of fundraising by Jamaat-ud-Dawah and other proscribed organisations as the activity is against the law.

According to the directive issued on Wednesday, JuD is making efforts to collect funds through fitrana, zakat and sadkaats (money given by Muslims as charity), the Dawn reported.

It said that members of these organisations were more active during Ramazan and distributed pamphlets, put up posters at various locations in Matiari Sindh, inviting people to give them their charity money.

Saeed has been engaged in fundraising throughout the country via the organisation's "charity wing" Falah-e-Insayat Foundation (FIF), the daily said.

FIF is closely connected to banned terrorist group LeT and its "humanitarian front" JUD and the US had designated the group's chief Hafiz Abdur Rauf as a global terrorist in 2010.

"Activists of the organisation had asked Matirai locals to make donations to FIF in order to avoid the government ban on proscribed organisations being involved in fundraising," the report said.

A senior police official said the action was based on reports from intelligence agencies who watched proscribed organisations.

He said the step should have been taken earlier and that the provincial government had been reluctant to take direct action against religious parties without concrete reason.

He said the government had realised that the charity organisation was not the real face of the outfit and had decided to look into how it spent the donations it collected from people in the name of charity.

The UN declared JuD a terror organisation and also individually designated Saeed as a terrorist in December 2008. The US has already put USD 10 million bounty on Saeed's head.

Saeed, who orchestrated the November, 2008, Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed, roams around freely in Pakistan despite being a designated terrorist and has made many anti-India remarks and speeches.