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World must remind Pakistan of its obligations: Pranab

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here on Friday that it was Islamabad’s responsibility to stop the activities of banned organisations.

In case Pakistan continues to prevaricate on taking action against the banned organisations, the international community should step in to remind Pakistan about its international obligations, he said while replying to questions on whether the Jamat-ud-Dawah had morphed into a new organisation to beat the ban by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

“When Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned, it came up as Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD). Now it has been banned. It (JuD) might have taken another name.... This is the pattern we have noticed in Pakistan, he said adding that it was “the responsibility of Pakistani government to stop the activities of these banned organisations in any form, in any name, in any shape.”

Global conventions

Interacting with journalists, Mr. Mukherjee referred to several international conventions on combating terror, including the SAARC Convention against terrorism of 1987 and the special protocol of 2004 of SAARC countries. In addition, a U.N. Security Council resolution after the Mumbai terror strikes had called for action against JuD/Lashkar and several of its leaders. If Pakistan does not comply with the U.N. ban, it is for the international community to “take appropriate action,” said Mr. Mukherjee.

Intelligence agencies here believe that a mass front formed by Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD), a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, has now become the latest front for this organisation whose agenda also includes anti-India activities.

Intelligence sources have drawn attention to a conference organised by the Tehrik-e-Hurmay-e-Rasool (Movement for defending the honour of the Prophet) nearly a month after the Mumbai attacks in which speakers criticised the UNSC ban on the JuD, Al Rashid Trust, Al Akhtar Trust and the Al Amin Trust.

Adopting the familiar anti-India posture adopted by the Lashkar/JuD, the meet decided to a ‘National Hatred Against India Movement’ and called upon Islamabad to free JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and unseal various offices of the organisation.

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