Pakistani militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir Tuesday vowed to resist an order to withdraw fund-raising boxes and sign boards from public places under a crackdown by the military government.
"We are sitting in our offices and our sign boards are very much there," Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Umer Farooq said a day after the Sindh provincial government announced the move.
"We have not removed the sign boards or fund boxes nor will we do that on government orders."
However police said the militant groups were cooperating and many donation boxes had been removed from shops and restaurants around this southern port city.
"Following the government order several restaurants have returned the boxes to jihadi groups while in some cases party activists took away the boxes voluntarily," said a police officer who did not want to be named.
"Clear instructions have been issued to all the hotels and restaurants not to display any such boxes in future."
President Pervez Musharraf last week banned two Islamic extremist groups, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Mohammad, which were widely blamed for bloody violence between the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan.
But he is also under pressure to curtail the activities of militant outfits using Pakistan as a base to launch raids into Indian-controlled Kashmir, where a Muslim separatist insurgency has raged since 1989.
Pakistan denies India's allegations that it supports "cross-border terrorism" in Kashmir, but it offers diplomatic and moral support to the jihad (holy war) groups fighting against Indian rule there.
The issue was one of the main sticking points in summit talks between Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the Taj Mahal town of Agra last month.
The latest restrictions will affect several militant outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkatul Mujahideen and Al-Badar, which had previously been allowed to recruit fighters and collect donations publicly.
"Can they stop the people from joining jihad or donating funds even if they remove sign boards and boxes?" Harkatul Mujahideen leader Hafiz Idrees said.
"This is unfortunate as people used to contribute funds voluntarily for jihad, and we are not very far from victory in Kashmir."
Jaish-e-Mohammad vowed to continue raising funds for its struggle in Kashmir.
"We have not started jihad on the order of the government nor can any ruler ask us to stop it," a spokesman for the group said.
Sindh Home Secretary Brigadier Mukhtar Sheikh said he hoped the militant groups would comply with the order.
"I don't have the details of how many boards and boxes have been removed but I hope all will follow the government's instructions," he said.
Federal interior ministry official Shahid Mahmood said "forcible" collection of funds for jihad was already outlawed in Pakistan but he could not say if there would be a nationwide ban on public donation boxes.
Officials in other provinces said there were no plans to follow Sindh's move.
"We have not received any instructions from the federal government in this regard. If we recieve such an order we will implement it," Punjab provincial Information Secretary Taimur Azmat Usman said.
Punjab is Pakistan's most populous province and the key area of public support for jihad groups -- KARACHI (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
