Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif tipped off the JuD on the impending U.N. sanctions post 26/11 on which the outfit emptied its bank accounts before they could be frozen.
President Asif Ali Zardari gave this information to the then U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson at a meeting in January 2009 called to discuss the follow up of the Mumbai probe, secret U.S. cables released by WikiLeaks show.
“He (Zardari) said that Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz Chief Minister Shabbaz Sharif had tipped off the JUD about the UNSCR 1267 mandated asset freeze, resulting in almost empty bank accounts,” said the State Department cable coming out of the US Embassy in Islamabad which gave minutes of the meeting between Mr. Zardari and Patterson on January 2, 2009.
The JuD was on December 10, 2008, enlisted by the U.N. Sanctions Committee on its consolidated list under Resolution 1267.
The U.N. Security Council sanctions that came roughly two months after the Mumbai terrorist attack had made it obligatory on Pakistan to implement its provisions.
Another U.S. cable coming out of Islamabad on March 7, 2007, reveals that the American Embassy in Pakistan had requested Washington to delay the imposition of U.N. Security Council resolution against JuD by two weeks, so as to protect US personnel in the region.
“Post’s reasoning for requesting this delay is based solely on force-protection considerations.
“DAC-PAK personnel will continue flying helicopter sorties in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-administered Kashmir until the end of March; ground support personnel will be deployed in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir as long as the helicopters are flying,” the cable said.
“By the end of the first week of April, U.S. military personnel will have redeployed... to the Islamabad area, awaiting onward transport out of Pakistan.
“In order not to increase the risk to our military personnel as they conclude their successful mission to Pakistan, post recommends that no action on the JuD designation be taken until all DAC-PAK operations have concluded and DAC personnel are in the Islamabad area,” the cable said.
