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By B. Muralidhar Reddy
ISLAMABAD, MARCH 15. It appears the activists of the five banned religious organisations in Pakistan have been asked to sign a `good behaviour bond' for a period of at least two years under the orders of courts and get formal approval from the Government. A total of 2,060 workers were arrested after the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf's speech on January 12. A scrutiny is underway to determine the number of activists who could be offered the conditional release. The amnesty scheme came amidst difficulties faced by the Government in satisfying the courts about the charges against some of the activists of the banned outfits. While the Lahore High Court has asked the Punjab Government to furnish relevant records, there have been instances of some activists being let off by courts for lack of evidence. One explanation from the Government side is that some agencies had made indiscriminate arrests during the crackdown, but could not bring such charges against them that could be substantiated in the court of law. In a related development, the Pakistan Government has directed the provincial Home Secretaries to stop the publications of all banned militant organisations that continue to appear in the market despite freezing of their assets and accounts. A report in the Pakistani English daily, Dawn, said that investigations revealed that a number of publications and websites were still being maintained by the militant organisations despite the Government ban. In some instances, it was noticed that the banned organizations had started publishing newspapers under different names after the crackdown. The Interior Ministry Additional Secretary, Abdul Rashid Khan, told the paper that the Ministry had sent a directive to the provincial governments to ensure that the ban on publications of militant organisations under the relevant clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act was in force. A list of the publications was also sent to the provinces, he said. The list of 23 publications that was sent by the Interior Ministry includes one quarterly magazine, one fortnightly magazine, 17 monthly magazines and four weekly magazines. The report said, besides the 23 publications, a number of publications brought out by the banned outfits were available in the market. The publications by the banned the Lashkar-e-Taiba include the monthly Voice of Islam, (English), monthly Al- Ribat, (Arabic), monthly Majallah Al-Daawa ( Urdu), monthly Tayyibat, (Urdu) for women, monthly Zarb-i-Taiba (Urdu ) for youth and students and weekly Jihad Times, (Urdu and Sindhi). The organisation also has a web-based radio, Al-Jihad in Urdu and Arabic, at http://www.markazdawa.org. The site offers links to militant coverage of news items. The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, sources said, printed monthly Sada-e-Mujahid and weekly Al-Hilal, copies of which are sent as complimentary to the families of `shaheeds' (martyrs). The Jaish-e-Mohammad, another banned militant outfit, published the fortnightly Jaish-e-Mohammad ( Urdu and English) and the monthly Bint-i-Ayesha ( Urdu) for women. The Jaish also offers electronic newsletter at its website http://www.jaish-i- Muhammad.org. Recently the site displayed the message of being "under construction''. A study carried out by a German NGO shows that Kashmir-specific publications making their regular appearance on the news stands include monthly, Mahaz-i-Kashmir, published by Jamiatul Mujahideen, Jammu and Kashmir, monthlies, Shahadat (Urdu), The Message( English) and an Arabic monthly Tehreek-ul- Mujahideen, Jammu and Kashmir, fortnightly Jihad-e-Kashmir by Jamaat-i- Islami, Jammu and Kashmir, and the monthly Kashmir Digest ( Urdu/English) printed in Birmingham, United Kingdom, for Kashmiri expatriates and Kashmiris in South Asia. The report said legal and technical difficulties were being encountered in blocking the websites of the banned organisations. Most often, when a website was blocked, the organisations put up new websites under a different address. ``We have requested the Government to make necessary amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act for taking action against the websites of the terrorist organizations,'' the Additional Secretary said.
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