Islamabad: Members of extremist groups like the Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Jaish-e-Mohammed openly collected donations for the jihad against the US in Afghanistan on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr in Pakistan`s Peshawar city, a media report on Tuesday said.
Activists of the JuD, JeM and Al-Badr Mujahideen gathered at the Bagh-e-Naran in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and sought donations to help wage the jihad against the US in Afghanistan.
Members of JuD and Al-Badr Mujahideen handed out printed material and waved banners while using megaphones to attract the attention of people, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Some activists of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, "making pronouncements in their easily distinguishable Afridi dialect", were also present, the report said.
"Amid this din and clamour for donations for the jihad, an apparently vigilant policeman stood guard looking instead at the double road that passes along the sprawling Bagh-e-Naran, except he did not see or choose not to see what was going on at his back," the report said.
It said the activity of the extremist groups either "had official sanction or the policeman on duty was not too bothered about who was collecting what and for what causes".
Citizens said there was nothing new about such groups seeking donations on occasions like Eid. "This is usual," one man said.
Some of the groups that have not been banned "routinely visit mosques and use the pulpits to invite people to join the holy war in Afghanistan".
Such "recruitment" in mosques in Peshawar`s peripheral areas and other districts continue, the report said.
Rarely are bodies of volunteers "who lose their lives in the way of Allah" brought back.
Instead, a group of militants visits and informs the family of the "good news" that their beloved son or brother has "embraced shahadat and that they should be proud and not sad", the report added.
There were times when militant groups would operate freely and openly, not only raising funds but recruiting young people for the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan.
Graffiti would openly invite volunteers to join their training camps.
PTI
