Pakistan arrests 6 men for raising funds for Jaish-e-Mohammed

Pakistan: Pakistan has arrested six men accused of raising funds for Jaish-e-Mohammed, an outlawed Pakistan-based group that claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed 40 Indian troops in India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab said on Wednesday it has intensified crackdown on terrorism financing and arrested six more JeM activists in Gujaranwala.

“The CTD teams raided the JeM’s ‘safe house’ and arrested Muhammad Afzal, Muhammad Amir, Allah Ditta, Muhammad Iftikhar, Muhammad Ajmal and Muhammad Bilal Makki, and recovered lakhs of rupees from their possession,” a statement from CTD said.

“The suspects were collecting funds to finance the activities of JeM. Charge-sheets against them has been submitted to the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Gujranwala and they are being interrogated,” the CTD statement said.

“No one will be allowed to collect funds for any proscribed organisation,” it said.

All six men arrested are said to be members of JeM.

Last week, six members of the JeM and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) were arrested by the CTD from Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore for allegedly collecting funds to finance terrorism.

The arrests are part of Pakistan’s ongoing government crackdown on terror financing.

On Monday, three terrorists belonging to the Islamic State (IS) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militant groups were arrested by the CTD officials in Pakistan’s Punjab province.