No Eid charity to banned terror outfits, Pakistan's Punjab tells citizens

Pakistan's Punjab province on Friday released a list of over 80 banned organisations, including alleged Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's outfit, and urged people not to give any charity to them during Ramadan or Eid-ul-Fitr.

The Punjab government's notification said it would be a crime to provide any kind of assistance to the banned organisations under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

The Pakistan government had proscribed/ banned Saeed's Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Masood Azhar's Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in 2002. The other notable banned organisations among the 83 are Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, ISIS (Islamic State), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Al-Qaeda Hizb-ut-Tahrir, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Balochistan Liberation Army Ansar-e-Islam and Balochistan Republican Army (BLA).

According to the Punjab government's notification, “Providing any kind of assistance to banned organisations is a crime under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. Those assisting banned organisations involved in terrorism and anti-state activities will be punished by the law.”

Registration with the Punjab Charity Commission is mandatory for charitable organisations in Punjab, the notification said. “Citizens should give their zakat (charity) and donations only to organisations registered with the Punjab Charity Commission and the Punjab government. The people should ensure that their assistance is reaching the rightful beneficiaries instead of terrorists.”

Muslims offer charity, termed as zakat (or zakat ul-fitr), during the holy month of Ramadan so that it can be distributed to the poor on the last day of the month, celebrated as the festival of Eid-ul-Fitr.

Hafiz Saeed has been in prison in Lahore since 2019 in multiple terror financing cases, and convicted for multiple years in these cases. However, there are reports that Saeed is getting 'VIP treatment' at Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore.

On 26 November 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists belonging to the LeT went on a rampage across Mumbai, carrying out coordinated attacks on Victoria Terminus (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) railway station, the Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi Trident hotels, a Jewish Chabad House in Colaba, and the Leopold Café after they sneaked into India's financial capital using a route through the Arabian Sea.

As many as 166 people were killed in the nearly 60-hour assault which sent shockwaves across the country and even brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

With PTI inputs