Jamaat headquarters brought under Pak govt control

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government on Sunday took over the sprawling headquarters of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front organisation of the LeT blamed for the Mumbai attacks, near Lahore amid tight security.

Khakan Babar, recently appointed by the government of Pakistan's Punjab province as the chief administrator, took over the JuD's Markaz-e-Taiba headquarters at Muridke, about 30 kms from Lahore.

The process was completed in the presence of Lahore's commissioner, the district police chief, an official of the Auqaf or religious affairs department and a police contingent. Babar will supervise and monitor all activities at the JuD's headquarters, a News channel reported.

Babar, his eight-member staff and about a dozen policemen will be housed in the Markaz-e-Taiba complex that includes a school, a college and a hospital.

A spokesman for the Markaz-e-Taiba described the appointment of the administrator as a "takeover" done under international pressure.

Pakistan's interior ministry chief Rehman Malik has said the JuD was banned shortly after the UN Security Council declared it a front for the LeT in December last year.

However, diplomatic sources said that the Pakistan government had not yet issued any formal notification banning the group.

JuD chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and several other top leaders of the group