ISLAMABAD - The federal government has recently banned another organisation - Ansar-ul-Hussain – which was allegedly involved in recruiting Shia youth to fight the self-styled militant organisation Islamic State (IS) or Daesh.
With the latest banning of Ansar-ul-Hussain, the number of proscribed organisations in the country has risen to 64.
Ansar-ul-Hussain has been banned on December 30, 2016, says the official website of the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) that contains an updated list of the banned organisations. However, an official of NACTA declined to comment on a question of The Nation that Ansar-ul-Hussain was involved in what kind of activities or the reasons behind its proscription.
Ansar-ul-Hussain is not involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan but a group of some people with this name is working in the areas of Parachinar as well as Orakzai Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and district Kohat of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to recruit Shia youth to fight IS, said Muhammad Aamir Rana, a security analyst and director of Islamabad-based think tank - Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies (PIPS).
According to some reports, these recruits were being sent to Syria via Iran to fight, he said and added that the presence of this group had also been found in Karachi. He however said that this would have yet to be ascertained whether Ansar-ul-Hussain had evolved a bigger group or not?
Prior to this, the Ministry of Interior had banned Jamat Ul Ahrar (JuA) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al Alim (LeJA) on November 11, 2016 and with the banning of Ansar-ul-Hussain, the number of those organisations that were banned in last year rises to three. Both, JuA and LeJA, are involved in a number of attacks in Pakistan against military personnel, law enforcement agencies (LEAs), and lawyers and on public places as well as government buildings.
The Ministry of Interior had proscribed Daish or ISIL or IS or ISIS on July 15, 2015 and this is the only organisation banned in 2015 while no organisation was proscribed in 2014. In 2013, the Ministry of Interior banned 14 organisations for their involvement in militant and terrorism activities.
