26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed. (Photo: Agence France-Presse)
Days ahead of US President Barack Obama's arrival in India, Pakistan has banned the Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), headed by 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed and the Haqqani Network, a media report said.
"The US has sought a ban on the Haqqani Network and the Jamaat-ud Dawa but the matter was being delayed,"
Dawn online quoted an Interior Ministry Official as saying.
The official said the government had already directed the departments concerned to take immediate steps to freeze the assets of the banned outfits.
In 2008, the United Nations said the JuD, a self-declared humanitarian charity, is a front for the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which designed and executed the attack in Mumbai which left 166 people dead.
The US. State Department last year declared the JUD a "foreign terrorist organisation", a status that freezes any assets it has under U.S. jurisdiction. In 2012, the United States offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar. He claims he has long abandoned its leadership and now heads Jamaat-ud-Dawa
Pakistani authorities have vowed repeatedly to crack down on the JuD but Hafiz Saeed operates openly in Pakistan, holding public rallies and giving interviews in which he rails against India.
The Haqqani Network, founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, has been blamed for some of the most heinous attacks on the US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan. It was designated a terrorist organisation by the US in September 2012.