JuD was always a front organisation for leT
America's amendment of its list of international terrorists and terror groups so as to designate one of Pakistan's largest charities, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa'ah, alongside a handful of smaller outfits as front organisations of the lashkar-e-Tayyeba hardly comes as a surprise. The relationship between the JuD and leT has been out in the open since 2008 when the United Nations Security Council listed the supposed charity group as an alias of the already proscribed lashkar under Resolution 1267, also known as the Al Qaeda sanctions list. The designation came soon after the leT attacked Mumbai and was, in fact, the result of hectic Indian lobbying at the international forum in the aftermath of the 26/11 carnage. India had been trying to get the JuD blacklisted for years but its efforts were thrice vetoed by China. However, 26/11 titled the balance of power. Hafiz Saeed, mastermind of the Mumbai attack and leT/JuD chief, was also put on the sanctions list, alongside Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi who now serves as the group's top commander in Kashmir.
At that time, Islamabad promised to take action against the JuD — the leT already had been banned in Pakistan since 2002, though only on paper. But the Government has done precious little in the years since then. The JuD's sprawling headquarters in Punjab Province is a town in itself. The group runs hospitals, clinics, schools and mosques across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and also raises funds across West and South Asia. During the 2005 earthquake and the 2010 flood in Pakistan, it was at the forefront of aid and rescue operations; in recent years, it's assistance to thousands of internally displaced persons in the tribal areas has been highly publicised to attract additional funds which are funnelled into terror campaigns. As for Saeed himself, he has been arrested a few times but released soon after. Between 2008 and 2009, he was kept under house arrest but let loose after a Pakistani court decided there was not enough evidence to hold him. In 2012, the US put a $10 million dollar bounty on Hafiz Saeed's head but that did nothing to hamper his activities. JuD, created to do the ISI's dirty work against India, is now a global terror organisation despite international sanctions and proscriptions. It will continue to flourish unless its patrons in Pakistan shut it down. And, for now, that seems unlikely. The group is still being used to target Indian assets in particular and push Pakistan’s dubious foreig policy goals in general — as evidenced by the leT attack on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Herat, which found mention in the US State Department’s terror group notification.