Pakistan has failed to take concrete action to keep a lid on banned militant outfits like Hafiz Saeed-led lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad which continuously resurface under new names challenging the Government’s authority, a media report said on Wednesday.
Under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, it is the job of the Interior Ministry to determine whether any group is to be banned, but it should also keep tabs on such organisations and prevent them from re-emerging, the Express Tribune reported.
However, the ministry has failed to take concrete action to restrain actions of groups beyond adding their name to a central list, the daily said
“The ministry presented a list of banned organisations to the Senate in December 2015 with 61 names on it. That list has not been updated since nor has it been made available to the public,” it said.
The daily said that one of the organisations which have circumvented the government’s restrictions by rebranding themselves is leT, led by 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Saeed, which was banned in 2002.
“The group and Saeed were able to reinvent themselves under the banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and expand their operations into a vast charity network as well,” the daily said.