Pakistan begins crackdown on militant groups amid global pressure

Asif Shahzad, Drazen Jorgic

Pakistan said on Tuesday it had begun a crackdown on Islamist militant groups, detaining 44 members of banned organizations including close relatives of the leader of a group blamed for a deadly bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir last month.

The interior ministry said it was a move to “speed up action against all proscribed organizations”. Officials said it was part of a long-planned drive against militant groups, not a response to Indian anger over what New Delhi calls Islamabad’s failure to rein in militant groups operating on Pakistani soil.Pakistan is facing pressure from global powers to act against groups carrying out attacks in India, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack that killed at least 40 paramilitary police.The incident led to the most serious conflict in years between the nuclear-armed neighbors, with cross-border air strikes and a brief dogfight over the skies of Kashmir. Tension cooled when Pakistan returned a downed Indian pilot on Friday.In a further sign that tensions were easing, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said a delegation would visit New Delhi next week to discuss an accord on Sikh pilgrims visiting holy sites in Pakistan.The interior ministry said close relatives of JeM leader Masood Azhar had been detained in “preventive custody” as part of the crackdown. It named them as Mufti Abdul Raoof and Hamad Azhar, who one ministry official said was the leader’s son.

On Tuesday, Pakistan placed two charities linked to Hafiz Saeed, founder of a militant organization the United States and India have blamed for numerous deadly attacks, including a siege by gunmen in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people, on the country’s official banned list.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation charities were placed on the list after the government announced the restriction last month.

INVESTIGATIONS

Some of the people detained were named by India in a dossier it gave to Pakistan after last month’s bombing, Interior secretary Azam Suleman said.“We are investigating them and if we get more evidence, more proof against them, they will be proceeded against according to law and if we don’t get any proof their detention will end,” Suleman said.Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told CNN last week that JeM chief Azhar was in Pakistan and was “really unwell”.

The United States, Britain and France proposed last month that the U.N. Security Council blacklist Azhar.

A Security Council vote is due to be held in mid-March. However, Pakistan’s staunch ally China, a Security Council member, has blocked previous attempts by world powers to sanction the JeM chief.The United States and Britain have urged Pakistan to deal with militant groups.Many Pakistani groups and individuals are under U.N. sanctions, including the JeM, and Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group that carried out the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, in which 166 people were killed.

There was no immediate official reaction in India to the arrests in Pakistan.

However, an Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, expressed skepticism.

“We have all seen this done for the last several decades now. How many times has Hafiz Saeed been arrested and let out?” the official said. “And have they taken action against Jaish camps?”