PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has started taking action against Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) and its affiliated organisations, sealing their offices and taking over their assets in the provincial capital and other parts of the province.

An office-bearer of the Hafiz Saeed-led organisation told Dawn that authorities in the provincial capital closed down their main centre in the Fawara Chowk neighbourhood about four days ago.

He said that officials of the district administration and police visited the centre and sealed it.

Besides, he said, the authorities had issued letters to several mosques in Peshawar telling them not to allow JuD activities on their premises.

He said another centre of the organisation was closed down in Abbottabad district of Hazara division while ambulances being operated by the JuD-affiliated Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) were confiscated by the authorities.

A senior government official in Peshawar confirmed the action against the JuD. He said two JuD offices had been sealed and 13 mosques and madressahs taken over by the Auqaf department.

Earlier in February this year, the federal government amended the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, banning individuals and organisations listed in the United Nations Security Council sanctions list.

KP Home and Tribal Affairs Secretary Ikramullah Khan did not respond to calls and text messages sent on his number for his response on the reported actions against JuD and its affiliated organisations.

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2018