Islamabad: Groups like the Jamaat-ud-Dawah
have set up hundreds of camps in Pakistani cities and are
using madrassa students to collect the hides of animals
sacrificed during Eid-ul-Azha to raise funds for their
activities.
The JuD, linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was not
included in a list of 31 terrorist and extremist groups that
were barred by the Interior Ministry from collecting the skins
of animals sacrificed over the three days of the Eid festival.
In Lahore alone, the group set up about 100 camps to
collect hides.
The Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, a front created by the
JuD when the government cracked down on it briefly in the wake
of the Mumbai attacks, issued advertisements in several
leading newspapers that asked people to donate the hides of
sacrificial animals.
Activists of the Foundation were seen collecting hides
across Islamabad today.
Some groups barred by the Interior Ministry from
collecting hides took the help of madrassa students and
clerics to gather skins in Lahore and other parts of Punjab
province, Pakistan Today newspaper reported.
The Eid holiday of the students was cancelled and they
were assigned the duty of collecting skins along with members
of the banned groups, the report said.
Analysts say the banned groups can raise sizeable amounts
of money by selling the hundreds of skins they collect.
While the skin of a smaller animal like a goat goes for
about Rs 1,000, the hides of larger animals bring in much more
money.
PTI
