ISLAMABAD, Aug 16: Interior Minister Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat on Monday claimed that Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), a major component of Muttahidda Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), was supporting Al Qaeda and providing shelter to its leaders in Pakistan.

He told a press conference at his chamber in Parliament House that the government had asked the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and the JI to explain whether they owned those activists of JI whose links with Al Qaeda had been established.

"These religious organizations have to explain why their high-profile activists have supported Al Qaeda terrorists," he added. However, Syed Munawar Hassan, the JI secretary-general, rejected outright the allegations made against his party's activists, saying the interior minister should prove these allegations in a court of law, otherwise he (minister) should avoid making false claims.

He said the interior minister had failed to control terrorism and violence in the country and was shifting the blame of his own failure to other people. Earlier, the interior minister claimed at his press conference that an active member of JI and her husband had their links with a high-profile Al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh and his son.

Mr Hayat said the couple was running a trust in Karachi known as Naveed-ul-Islam Trust and the chairperson of the trust, Mrs Shazia, was also a JI activist.

He said that two other activists of JI, the Khawaja brothers, were arrested on Dec 18 for allegedly harbouring a top Al Qaeda leader Yasir Al Jazeeri.