Govt takes over main center of Jamaat-ud-Dawa
Sunday, 25 Jan, 2009 | 04:34 PM PST |
LAHORE: Pakistan on Sunday formally took control of the main operational facility of a charity allegedly linked to the Mumbai attacks, underscoring its ongoing effort to ease international pressure over militancy on its soil, according to AP.
Pakistan had already closed or taken over several offices, schools and other properties of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity and detained much of its central leadership.
On Sunday, a newly appointed government administrator took over the 75-acre compound in the eastern city of Muridke in Punjab province, where the group has conducted and coordinated much of its business.
Salman Ejaz, a senior official in Punjab province, said all assets and properties of the charity in the province were now under the regional government's control. Most of the assets, offices and operations of the group are in Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province.
'The government has appointed an officer as administrator for all the assets,' Ejaz said. 'The schools and the hospitals will keep on working as they are.'
Ejaz said the administrator and other officials would try to gauge and map out the extent of the charity's operations _ especially its bank accounts, which Pakistan has ordered frozen.
Asked why it took so long for the government to take over the Muridke site, officials said it was a complicated task.
After the initial crackdown and assessment of the group's operations, 'we are going for total regulation under government control,' Punjab Home Secretary Nadeem Hasan said. 'All things cannot happen in one go.'
A spokesman for the charity could not immediately be reached for comment.
Initially, there were several relatively small protests over the government's moves against the charity, but that fervor appears to have died down in recent days.
Indian officials also could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday, but the South Asian giant has repeatedly demanded Pakistan go after militant groups, with US officials adding to the pressure.