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Pak. enforces ban on militant outfits
By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABAD, JAN. 13. The Pakistan Government has begun enforcing the ban on the five militant and sectarian outfits identified by the President, Pervez Musharraf, in his address to the nation on Saturday.
Authorities are believed to have started the operation of rounding up of activists of the organisations and closing down their offices. The operation against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad has been going on for several days now.
The Radio Pakistan, quoting authorities in the Punjab province, reported that in the last 24 hours, police had locked over 250 offices and detained 533 activists of the outfits in different towns.
In Peshawar, 10 leaders and 100 workers of the Tehreek-e-Jafria and the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan were arrested. An NWFP police official has been quoted as saying that directions had been issued to launch a crackdown against four outfits. More than 150 leaders and workers of ``jehadi'' and religious outfits had been arrested from different parts of Sindh, including Karachi. Most of them belong to the SSP. In the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the police arrested dozens of workers of the outfits apart from sealing the offices. The LeT office in Islamabad has also been sealed.
Police continued the midnight operation in various parts of the country including Kohat, Hangu, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Dera Ismail Khan and Sargodha and arrested more than 700 workers of religious and ``jehadi'' outfits. A number of Jamiat Ulemai Islam workers were also arrested.
AFP reports from Muzaffarabad:
The ban on the Lashkar and the Jaish will also be extended to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. ``I fully endorse the speech of President Pervez Musharraf and we will take action in our area in line with it,'' Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, Prime Minister of PoK, said today.
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