It looks like Jamaat-ud-Dawa is an organisation out of ideas. Hafiz Saeed’s preventive detention was punctuated by the usual protests, albeit with numbers much thinner than initially expected. And when that failed, the organisation resorted to another tried and tested tactic, renaming both Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its humanitarian wing, the Falah-i-Insaniyat foundation to Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Jammu and Kashmir (TAJK).

To assume that merely changing the name would make the government forget, is beyond preposterous, and if it does, then all the criticism of the government not following through on its promise to provide security to Pakistan is true and warranted. Sadly, the artist previously known at JuD has already worked once before to pull wool over the eyes of the state. JuD was once Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hafiz Saeed was its founder.

The fact that it now has Kashmir in its name is no coincidence, the organisation wants the public to perceive that the government is cracking down on a movement aimed at supporting the Kashmiri cause. This is insensitive on part of the supporters of the JuD. It belittles the Kashmir struggle, and makes it just about Hafiz Saeed and his organisation’s vision, rather than what is truly right for Pakistan or Kashmir. Given the affinity of the average Pakistani to the Kashmiri struggle, any perceived damage to the cause – even by the state – would be tantamount to betraying one of the central tenets of Pakistan’s national agenda.

However, the government is for once, playing this smartly. By identifying Hafiz Saeed and the JuD as proponents of mischief, it is highlighting Pakistan’s policy on the Kashmir issue, extending moral and diplomatic support for the Kashmiri right to self-determination. JuD, LeT, TAJK or whatever else the organisation chooses to call itself, the government should continue on its path to place Pakistan above censure in the international community. The brave people who made and implemented this policy towards JuD must ensure that they are not taken in by a simple rebranding.