Islamabad Has Spent Millions On Terror Outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa: Pakistan Minister

Brig Ijaz Ahmed Shah, Pakistan’s interior minister, has admitted that Islamabad spent millions of rupees on proscribed terror outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD). He made the comments on a Pakistani private news channel called Hum News, reported news agency ANI.

"We have spent millions of rupees on JuD. We need to demotivate the members of the proscribed organisation and bring them down to the mainstream," he reportedly said during a talk show with journalist Nadeem Malik. JuD, led by Hafiz Saeed, is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)

Earlier, India declared Hafiz Saeed as terrorist individually under a new anti-terror law. The decisions to declare him terrorist has been taken nearly a month after Parliament approved a crucial amendment to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment (UAPA) Act, 1967.

Apart from Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman-Lakhvi, fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar were also declared as individual terrorists by the government.

The four are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-law, an official at the Ministry of Home Affairs said in New Delhi.

According to the UAPA, earlier only a group could be declared as a terrorist organisation. The amendments made in the Act allows the government to declare even an individual as a terrorist.

These four are involved in terrorist attacks in India and have been designated as global terrorists under the United Nations.

Under the new bill, the government can impose a travel ban on individuals who have been designated as "terrorists" and seize their properties. The law is in conformity with United Nations conventions as well as international standards, the government said.