Pakistan imposes travel abroad ban on militant cleric

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan has banned Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, a militant cleric on UN’s terror watch list, and his 37 associates from traveling abroad, the Interior Ministry announced Wednesday.

The ministry notification said they had been placed on the country’s Exit Control List, also known as the ECL.

Saeed, who heads a famous “charity organization” named Jamatud Dawah, was until recently free to move anywhere around the country and was also openly participating in rallies.

On Monday, he was placed under house arrest as the government launched a crackdown on the headquarters of his organization in Punjab province's Lahore and Muridke cities.

India accuses Saeed of being the mastermind of the November 2008 attack in Mumbai city that left more than 160 people dead. He was put on UN’s terror watch list in December 2008 for being associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba and al-Qaeda for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts of activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” both entities.

Saeed later formed the Jamatud Dawah, claiming it had no links to the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba and was merely a charity organization that aims to help people across the country.

Indian and Western media often associate Saeed and his organization with Pakistan’s military spy agency – the Inter Services Intelligence or the ISI; Pakistan's government and the Jamatud Dawah deny the links.

China -- a close defense and economic ally of Pakistan -- has time and again vetoed moves led by India in the UN to declare Saeed and Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief Maulana Masood Azhar as “terrorists”.

Meanwhile, the country’s religious and right-wing parties including Jamat-e-Islami, Jamiat Ulema Islam, and Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith have reacted strongly against the move by launching protest demonstrations across the country.

They described the action against Saeed as a result of “foreign pressure”. On Tuesday, Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Asif Ghafoor said Saeed’s house arrest had been a policy decision taken by the state in its “national interest”. He dispelled the impression that foreign pressure was behind the move.

A lawmaker with the major opposition party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, led by the country’s cricket hero Imran Khan, also protested against his house arrest.

Surprisingly, a few members of the Hindu community also called for his release. On Wednesday, dozens of Hindu men and women gathered outside the Karachi Press Club with placards saying: “ Hafiz Saeed is our benefactor.”

The JuD’s relief wing reportedly provides aid to the Hindu and Christian minority across the country.

Indian Foreign Ministry has described Saeed's arrest as “insufficient”. In response, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement on Wednesday his country did not need "any certificate from New Delhi" over the arrest.