Gilani directs Interior Ministry to counter banned groups

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has directed the Interior Ministry to counter the political activities of banned and extremist groups in the Defa-e-Pakistan Council, in which the Jamaat-ud-Dawah is the driving force. During a meeting of his cabinet yesterday, Gilani asked the Interior Ministry to take up with provincial governments the inclusion of banned groups in the Defa-e-Pakistan Council after several ministers expressed concern on the matter. Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, has played a key role in putting together the Defa-e-Pakistan (Defence of Pakistan) Council. [caption id=“attachment_201416” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Gilani has directed the Interior Ministry to counter the political activities of banned and extremist groups.”]  [/caption] In recent weeks, the conglomerate of about 40 extremist and hardline religious groups has organised a string of massive rallies at which speakers targeted the US and India. Several ministers expressed “grave concerns” during yesterday’s cabinet meeting on the inclusion of banned groups in the Defa-e-Pakistan Council and asked the government to take action against them, The News daily quoted its sources as saying. A couple of federal ministers from southern Punjab pointed to the presence of banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief Malik Ishaq at the Defa-e-Pakistan Council’s rally in Multan on January 30 and said it appeared that the militant commander had the “patronage” of the PML-N government in Punjab, the Dawn newspaper quoted its sources as saying. The cabinet decided to take up Ishaq’s free movements with the Punjab government. PTI