Terror fund-raising carries on despite Pakistan's claim of crackdown

Pakistan has submitted a note to the UN Security Council detailing its action against terror outfits to put the leash on terrorists.
UN security council. (File Photo | AP)
UN security council. (File Photo | AP)

NEW DELHI: Pakistan has submitted a note to the UN Security Council detailing its action against terror outfits to put the leash on terrorists. It’s a foggy document that purports to show that the Pakistan National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) has started a crackdown on terrorists, terror outfits and suspected front organisations that were tasked to generate terror funds. Besides Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat (FIF) foundation, Pakistan claims to have banned the Maymar Trust which finances Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) terror activities in India.

Maymar is known as the Al-Akhtar Trust in UN files, listed on 17 August 2005 as an organisation associated with Al-Qaida and JeM. Despite the ban, the outfit which claims to be working for the welfare of children continues to raise funds that go directly to finance JeM.

The note says, “URLs linked to Jamaat-ud-Dawa and FIF that highlighted fund-raising activities of these organizations have now been closed down including the official websites. Moreover, measures are also being taken to prevent associated individuals and entities from publishing advertisements for collection of funds.”

Pakistan has also claimed that it has enhanced inter-agency coordination to identify terrorist property and other assets to freeze them as per UN Security Council Resolution 1267. But a majority of the outfits highlighted in the UN list continue to thrive and raise money in Pakistan.   

Even FIF and Maymar Trust continue to raise funds despite the fact that their URLs were de-activated in January. The FIF Karachi unit continues to advertise its fund-raising activities and Maymar Trust has now moved to social media platforms to raise funds. It has given a Karachi number (+923212xxx775) for prospective donors to reach out to it. Maymar Trust runs another proxy known as Jamia-Tur-Rasheed in Karachi, which raises funds through Majlis-e-ilmi Society’s bank account in Meezan, the largest Islamic commercial bank of Pakistan.

However, Pakistan claims, “All existing bank accounts of the Jamaat-ul-Dawa and its affiliate FIF, individuals and entities have been frozen.” It also says, “One of the decisions of the national action plan pertains to the registration, scrutiny and audit of all charity organizations.” However, FIF and JuD continue to operate in Pakistan through their franchise Relief for Everyone raising terror funds through donations. In its effort to avoid surveillance, the server of the outfit has been moved to Germany.

Pakistan claims to have taken over the property of 64 proscribed organisations, including JuD, FIF, JeM and three other terror outfits. The Jamat ul Ahrar (JuA), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJA) and Ansar-ul-Hussain all were included in the ban list in November-December 2016. JuA, a splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban, is led by Omar Khalid Khorasani, who is said to be hiding in Afghanistan.

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