The Pakistan government Friday took over the administrative control of the headquarters of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), the militant outfit which claimed responsibility for the Pulwama suicide attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir.
The move came a day after the UN Security Council comprising 15 nations, including Pakistan’s key ally China, named JeM in a statement condemning in the “strongest terms” the “heinous and cowardly attack perpetrated by Pakistan-based JeM” in Pulwama and stressed on the need to hold organisers and financiers of such “reprehensible acts” accountable and bring them to justice.
“The Punjab government has taken over the control of the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur,” Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry told PTI.
“The government of Punjab has taken over the control of a campus comprising Madressatul Sabir and Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah in Bahawalpur and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs,” the minister added.
Bahawalpur is 400 km from Lahore.
A statement issued by the interior ministry also said the crackdown on Jaish “has been taken in line with the decision of the National Security Committee meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan”.
The Islamic seminaries in the campus have a faculty of 70 teachers and currently 600 students were studying in it, the statement said, adding that Punjab police is providing security and protection to the campus.
Pakistan Thursday also banned Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud-Dawa and its charity wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.
Earlier, the two outfits were kept on the watchlist of the interior ministry.
Meanwhile, Pakistan army chief has said that though Pakistan is a peace-loving country, it will not be intimidated and any misadventure will be given a befitting response.
General Qamar Bajwa made the remarks on his visit to the Line of Control on Friday, said a statement issued the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).
“COAS visited Line of Control. Reviewed state of preparedness. Lauded high moral of troops. Pakistan is a peace loving country but we will not be intimidated or coerced. Any aggression or misadventure shall be paid back in same coin”, Bajwa said, according to DG ISPR major general Asif Ghafoor.
Agencies