JuD, other such groups using students to raise funds during Eid-The Pioneer-8.11.11

Groups like the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) have set up hundreds of camps in Pakistani cities and are using madrassa students to collect the hides of animals sacrificed during Eid-ul-Azha to raise funds for their activities.

The JuD, linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was not included in a list of 31 terrorist and extremist groups that were barred by the Interior Ministry from collecting the skins of animals sacrificed over the three days of the Eid festival. In Lahore alone, the group set up about 100 camps to collect hides. The Falah-eInsaniyat Foundation, a front created by the JuD when the Government cracked down on it briefly in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, issued advertisements in several leading newspapers that asked people to donate the hides of sacrificial animals. Activists of the Foundation were seen collecting hides across Islamabad on Monday. Some groups barred by the Interior Ministry from collecting hides took the help of madrassa students and clerics to gather skins in Lahore and other parts of Punjab province, Pakistan Today newspaper reported.

The Eid holiday of the students was cancelled and they were assigned the duty of collecting skins along with members of the banned groups, the report said. Analysts say the banned groups can raise sizeable amounts of money by selling the hundreds of skins they collect. While the skin of a smaller animal like a goat goes for about `1,000, the hides of larger animals bring in much more money.

The Interior Ministry warned that any member of a bannedgroup found collecting skins would be booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act but media reports said this did not

deter several proscribed organisations even in cities like Lahore and Karachi. Some reports said that the groups closely monitored butcher’s shops and centres where sacrifices were offered and collected all the skins.

Javaid Kasab, who owns a leather business, told Pakistan Today that most hides brought to his factory after Eid-ul-Azha came from banned religious organisations. He said these groups earned millions of rupees every year. Kasab said the groups would earn even more this year, as the prices of hides had almost doubled. A cow’s hide was selling for `3,000 to `4,000, while the skin of a goat would sell for Rs 1,000, he said. A member of JuD’s information department identified only as Shahid told The Express Tribune that camps operated by the JuD or the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation in Lahore had not been disturbed by law enforcement agencies.