ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: The government has frozen bank accounts of six organizations recently banned for their alleged involvement in extremism, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

A ministry spokesman told Dawn that the finance ministry had been informed about the decision to freeze bank accounts under section 11-E of the Anti-Terrorism Act, while the provincial governments had been directed to check the printing of any publication of the banned groups.

The banned groups are: Islami Tehrik-i-Pakistan (formerly Tehrik-i-Jafaria Pakistan), Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan (formerly Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan), Khuddam-ul-Islam (formerly Jaish-i-Mohammad), Jamiat-ul-Ansar, Hizb-ul-Tehrir and Jamaat-ul-Furqan.

“It is obvious that when all activities of these organizations have been banned, printing of their publications has also been prohibited,” the spokesman said. He said the finance ministry had taken a prompt action on the interior ministry’s communication and the bank accounts of the six banned groups and their frontline leaders had been frozen by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

“We have asked the State Bank to provide us the details of the frozen bank accounts and I think we would have complete information about it within a couple of days,” said chairman of the interior ministry’s national crisis management cell Brigadier Javed Cheema.