Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK), which India claims to be a front for Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), has been banned by Pakistan after India raised the issue at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-financial terror body, in February this year.
According to the website of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA) under Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, TAJK was placed on the list of “proscribed organisations” on June 8. There are 64 other outfits in the list, which includes Jaish-e-Mohammad, Al Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban and Balochistan Liberation Army among others.
On January 14, days before JuD chief Hafiz Saeed was put under “house arrest” in Pakistan, he appeared at a press conference held by TAJK chairman Ghulam Mohammad Safi. In the video available with The Hindu , Safi said, “I congratulate Hafiz Saeed that he has declared 2017 as the year of Kashmir and that he has agreed to run his programme under the banner of TAJK.” The video was put out by the JuD’s cyber cell and also sports the JuD logo. While the JuD is not banned in Pakistan, it was placed under the category of “organisations under watch” on January 27. Three days later, Saeed was placed in detention under pressure from the United States.
India first raised the activities of TAJK at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary at Paris in February.
“This the first time, Pakistan has banned an outfit on the basis of representations submitted by India to an international body,” said a senior government official.
