The Pakistan government has banned 25 religious and other organisations, including the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), the interior ministry said today.
The ministry presented a list of the banned organisations in the National Assembly, or lower house of parliament. It also said the Sunni Tehrik had been put on a watch list. Apart from JuD, LeT and JeM, other organisations in the list of outlawed groups are Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Al-Akhtar Trust, Tehreek-e-Islami, Islamic Students Movement, Islami Tehreek-e-Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Islam, Balochistan Liberation Army, and Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan. A majority of the groups have been linked to terrorist attacks and suicide bombings in Pakistan.
India has blamed the JuD, LeT and JeM for several attacks on its soil, including the Mumbai attacks last year and the 2001 assault on the Indian parliament. Responding to a question in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the federal government had banned the 25 organisations and entities under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.
