A minister has informed that on Tuesday an order was issued by the Pakistani Government to detain Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar's brother Abdul Rauf Asghar and 43 others. The order followed a high-level meeting which took place in Pakistan Ministry of Interior on March 4 (Monday) to review the National Action Plan (NAP). The meeting was attended by all provincial governments.
The order states, “It was decided to speed up action against all proscribed organisations. In compliance, 44 under-observation members of proscribed organisations, including Mufti Abdul Raoof and Hamad Azhar, have been taken in preventive detention for investigation. These actions will continue as per the decisions taken in National Security Committee (NSC), while reviewing National Action Plan.” The move comes a week after India's Air Force strike on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror training camp at Balakot in Pakistan. India on 26th February had conducted air strikes on major terror camp, completely destroying them.
Pakistani Interior Minister Shahryar Afridi while addressing a press conference said that the detained people will be thoroughly investigated and if found involved in any terror activities, they will be charged and placed under arrest. However he refused to disclose the names of those arrested. If there is any proof of their involvement in any terror activities, the Pakistan government holds the right to grab the assets of these banned groups.
Earlier, after the Pulwama Attack there were pressures on Pakistan from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to stop their funding to terror camps and act against the terror organisations on its soil, within stipulated time. The FATF has even threatened to blacklist Pakistan, which already in 'grey list'. This will result in creating difficulties for Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to acquire loans from international funding institutions.