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Punjab to swoop on 17 banned outfits
Monday, July 05, 2010
Monitoring Report
RAWALPINDI: The Punjab Home Department has set up task forces comprising police officials at the district level to crack down against 17 banned organisations following the suicide attacks at the Data Darbar in Lahore.
The task forces will comprise officials from the CID, the Special Branch and the Anti-Terrorism Squad. They have also been advised to establish close contacts with intelligence officers in the districts to exchange information with regard to 17 banned organisations.
An official of the Punjab Home Department told the BBC Urdu Service that orders had been issued to launch crackdowns on secret hideouts of banned outfits and arrest those connected with them immediately.
The task forces have been asked to trace out those who had been financing the banned organisations and their other funding sources and take action under the Anti-Terrorist Act. Headed by District Police Officers (DPOs), the task forces will submit their reports to the Punjab Home Department.
The 17 outfits, which were banned by the Home Department, Punjab, include Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Sipah Sahaba Pakistan, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Tehrik-e-Jafriya Pakistan, Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi, Millat-e-Islamiya Pakistan, Khudamul Islam, Islami Tehrik Pakistan, Hizb-ut-Tehrir, Jamiat-ul-Ansar, Jamiat-ul-Furqan, Khair-un-Naas International Trust, Islamic Students Movement (ISM), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Jamaat-ud-Daawa.
Besides, the Sunni Tehrik has been placed under observation. Among the banned outfits, nine belong to the Deobandi sect, three to Shia sect and three belong to the Ahle Hadith. The BLA is a nationalist organisation, while the ISM is a students organisation.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is not included in the list issued by the Punjab government while according to Interior Minister Rehman Malik,the TTP and al-Qaeda, in collaboration with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba, were active in other parts of the country, especially in the Punjab.
A cold war is underway between the federal Interior Ministry and the Punjab government due to the failure of the organisation working under the ministry in providing information about the activities of the extremist organisations and both are accusing each other in this regard.
According to an official of the Punjab Home Department, the departments working under the Interior Ministry do not give any specific information about the possible extremist acts. He said the ministries usually provided general information about a possible extremist act in a city and specific information was very rarely imparted.
Concerning suicide attacks at the Data Darbar, the provincial Home Department said that it had not received any information in this regard from the federal Interior Ministry while the federal Interior Ministry said that it had issued a warning letter two days before the incident in which it was conveyed that the terrorists could target Imambargahs or the shrines in the province.
It is pertinent to mention that about 4,000 persons were kept under surveillance for their alleged links with the extremist organisations under the Anti-Terrorist Act Schedule-4 and these people were bound to inform their respective police stations about their movement.