Jamaat-ud-Dawa's Muridke headquarters still open in Pak

LAHORE/MURIDKE: The main complex of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), in Muridke on the outskirts of Lahore, which is linked to last month's terror attack on Mumbai, is still open four days after the UN Security Council placed the group on a terrorist list, The Times has learnt.

Pakistan claims that it ordered the closure of the JuD's facilities on Thursday under pressure from India and the United States, which consider the group a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) -- the militant group blamed for the Mumbai attack.

But when The Times visited the complex in Muridke, 30 miles from Lahore, over the weekend it was functioning normally with no sign of any police presence.

Most of the 1,600 students at the complex were away for last week's Eid holidays, but a dozen or so staff and about 40 others were moving freely around the buildings, none of which was sealed.

The paper quoted Mohammed Abbas, 34, also known as Abu Ahsan, the administrator of the complex, as saying: "We've not had any official communication about closing. A lot of parents have been calling, afraid that it will be closed or there could be some violence, but we are telling them to send their children back."