Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that his government will push ahead with plans to seize control of charities run by Hafiz Saeed. India has claimed that Saeed was the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
Abbasi made the statement during an interview to Reuters on Monday, days after the United States reiterated its demand to Pakistan to prosecute the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief. “Yes, the government will take over the charities which are sanctioned and not allowed to operate,” Abbasi said, adding that the military too was on board. “Everybody is on board, everybody is on the same page, everybody is committed to implementation of UN sanctions.”
The news agency had last month reported on the government’s directions to federal and provincial departments to implement the sanctions against two charities – the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, both of which the US has labelled “terrorist fronts” for the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba – and financial assets owned by Saeed.
The order came after the Financial Action Task Force, an international organisation that combats money laundering and terrorist financing, warned Islamabad that it faces inclusion on a watch list for failing to crack down on financing terrorism.
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