Charity group puts Islamabad in tight spot

Muridike, Punjab: Pakistan's vow to crack down on militants behind the Mumbai attacks may meet an early test in the form of an Islamic charity that is accused by the US of being a front group for the prime suspects.

A move against Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which runs schools, clinics and post-disaster recovery programmes, risks a Muslim backlash that could destabilise the country's shaky secular government, analysts say.

The group - subject to media scrutiny since the Mumbai slaughter - invited reporters to its sprawling headquarters on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore on Thursday to stress it had severed its links with Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed by India for the attacks.

"It is true we had links with Lashkar-e-Taiba in the past, but please remember, the past is the past," said spokesman Abdullah Muntazir. "We are the victim of baseless Indian propaganda, we are not involved in attacks in India, we are just doing welfare work and nothing else."

Lashkar-e-Taiba is believed to have been created with the help of Pakistan's intelligence agency in the 1980s to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region. It was banned in 2002 by Islamabad amid US pressure after New Delhi linked it to an attack on its parliament that helped push the nuclear-armed neighbours close to war.

Soon after the ban, the group changed its name to Jamaat-ud-Dawa, according to the US State Department, which in 2006 listed it as a terrorist organisation and blocked its assets.

Its leader, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, has been placed under house arrest on at least two occasions.