ISLAMABAD, 19 February 2007 — Pakistani authorities began yesterday to seal offices of two Islamic charities on a list of organizations whose assets the United Nations says should be frozen because of links to terrorism, government officials said.
Authorities shut down offices of Al-Rasheed Trust and Al-Akhtar Trust in different cities, including 21 offices of both groups in the southern province of Sindh, officials said.
“The action is being taken under our international obligations as under UN resolution 1267, they’re not supposed to operate in Pakistan,” said retired Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of an Interior Ministry’s crisis management unit. “We have asked provincial government to take action against all organizations listed in the resolution and obviously, the two are among them,” Cheema told Reuters.
All of the charities’ offices would be shut, he said. The Pakistani government froze Al-Rasheed’s accounts after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, but a court in 2003 declared the move illegal. The groups have not been banned in Pakistan and a senior police official said they could continue their welfare work. “We’ve been told by the federal government not to disrupt their welfare activities like hospitals and clinics,” said the police official.
