NDTV Correspondent
Thursday, December 11, 2008 3:58 PM (New Delhi)
Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) is a wahhabi organisation, which was founded in Lahore, Pakistan in 1985. At the time of its inception, the organisation was called Markaz Daw'a wal Irshad. It changed its name after the US declared Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) a terrorist organisation, and consequent ban imposed by the Pakistani government.
Jamaat ud Dawa has long been known to be a front for the LeT. However, the outfit publicly retracts itself from any association with the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who was an Islamic Studies professor at the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore and founder of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, is the leader of the outfit.
In April 2006, the US State Department announced the inclusion of Jamaat-ud-Dawa to the Specially Designated Global Terrorist Designation (SDGT).
Pakistan never acted against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa. Instead, Saeed and his leaders rebranded the group as a Muslim charity to mask the operations of Lashkar-e-Toiba.
The Jamaat-ud-Dawa has established an organization that rivals Lebanese Hezbollah. The group succeeded in providing aid to earthquake-ravaged regions in Kashmir in 2005 while the Pakistani government was slow to act.
Lashkar is active in fundraising across the Middle East and South Asia, and has recruited scores of Westerns to train in their camps. Jamaat-ud-Dawa actively fundraises on the Internet at its website.
The JuD is accused of being the front group for the prime suspects of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the terrorist organization that trained the 10 gunmen involved in these attacks.
On December 7, 2008, under pressure from US and India, Pakistani army launched an operation against LeT and Jama'at-ud-Dawah. The army arrested more than twenty members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. They are said to have sealed off the centre, which included a madrassa and a mosque alongside offices of the JuD.
On request from India, the United Nations Security Council has banned the JuD. Four top leaders of the LeT have also been declared as terrorists.
The UNSC has also initiated the necessary steps to tighten its grip on Hafiz Saeed, who is regarded as a key man behind the Mumbai terror attacks.