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