Pakistan bans 11 terror groups associated with Hafiz Saeed's Jamat-ud-Dawa and Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad

Pakistan on Saturday imposed a ban on 11 terrorist organisation for having links with proscribed outifts Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) led by global terrorist Masood Azhar and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) of 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF). The decision has been taken in continuation to the National Action Plan of Pakistan.

The banned organisations are:

1) Al Anfal Trust
2) Idara e Khidmat e Khalq, Lahore
3) Al Dawat ul Irshaad
4) Al Fazal foundation and trust, Lahore
5) Mosc and Welfare trust, Lahore
6) Al Madina Foundation, Lahore
7) Moaz bin Jabl education trust, Lahore
8) Al Esaar Foundation, Lahore
9) Al Rahmat Trust organization, Bahawalpur
10) Al Hamad Trust, Faisalabad
11) Al Furqan Trust, Karachi

Pakistan-based JeM chief was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations on May 1. The JeM has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama suicide attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers and led to a spike in tensions between India and Pakistan. Pakistan in February banned Saeed-led JuD and its charity wing FIF amidst intense global pressure to rein in the terrorist groups.

The decision to ban the 11 organisations was taken during a meeting between Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan and Interior Minister Ijaz Shah on Friday. After the February 14 attack, Khan had said Islamabad would not spare any group involved in militancy or using Pakistani soil for any kind of terror activity against other countries.

Pakistan's National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), which works under the Ministry of Interior, announced on its website that seven groups have been banned for their affiliation with the JuD, which was proscribed in March by the Pakistan government. All these groups are Lahore-based. Recently, the government announced to take control of more than 30,000 religious seminaries.