Muzaffarabad: Charities linked to jihadist groups have been using humanitarian aid operations to extend their influence over children orphaned by last year's earthquake in north Pakistan.
Contrary to government rules that earthquake orphans must be cared for only by the state or relatives, large numbers have been taken into care by religious charities and madrassas.
A senior cleric, Qazi Mahmood-ul-Hassan, who runs the Jamia Dar-Uloom Al Islamia madrassa in Muzaffarabad, said that he had taken 55 orphans into care.
Fund diversion
His madrassa helped the Al Rashid Trust carry out relief work immediately after the earthquake last October. The trust has been accused by the United States of channelling funds to Al Qaida.
The cleric said that hundreds of other orphans had been taken into care by other madrassas and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, proscribed by America as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is held responsible for terrorist attacks in India.
"These people have taken orphans," said Hassan. "They have a target of convincing people to accept their ideology." Before Pakistan reversed its policy of supporting jihadi groups under pressure from America after September 11, the two groups were openly united.
