JuD Fights Ban with PR Campaign

By M H Ahssan

Portrays Itself As Charity Group Through Elaborate Website Campaign

As Pakistan struggles to ban the Jamaat-ud-Dawa after the UN Security Council resolution, the Islamic group has mounted its own spirited defence against its ban. Portraying itself as a charity organization and social do-gooder, the JuD has mounted a campaign on its website to convince its followers that the UNSC had proscribed the wrong organization under Indian pressure.

JuD on Tuesday published a detailed list of people who would suffer from the closure. They included thousands of the 2005 and 2008 earthquake victims, especially in Balakot, Mansehra, Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot. It also said it is digging wells in Sindh and Balochistan; helping out poor and destitute children, patients who avail of free surgeries and diagnostic services, people who receive dry rations in disaster affected areas, etc.

“Jamaat-ud-Dawa is always the first to reach affected people in any emergency or natural disaster; pulling out people from the rubble of destroyed homes, carrying out on-thespot surgeries of wounded people, setting up tent cities, cooking and distributing free food, digging fresh water wells, and building shelters.”

The JuD website is relishing a BBC story about poor Pakistani Hindus protesting against the ban. Hindus even stepped out in a protest march in Hyderabad (Sindh), describing JuD as a “saviour”. One protester, Biga Ram, told a news agency: “How can an organisation be terrorist if it’s been providing food and water to us despite knowing that we’re not Muslims?”

During the Oct. earthquake in 2005, it was the profusion of JuDhospitals and medical services that drew praise from many international observers, while the Pakistan government floundered in reaching basic services to the quake-affected people.

It helped in that the JuD’s recruiting public came from the PoK region. And ultimately, that’s the secret of the JuD’s survival — because it has taken over a lot of the services that should actually be provided by the state. That’s also the unfortunate truth about the ban. This group which has a charity front will always use the humanitarian excuse to continue working on all fronts, including training and deploying terrorists. Which is why, while JuD’s bank accounts have been frozen, the group has not yet been formally banned by Pakistan.