Amid global pressure mounted by India, panicky Pakistan imposes sham ban on Hafiz Saeed's JuD and FIF

In light of massive international pressure fostered by India following the dastardly Pulwama terror attack, a panicky Pakistan on Thursday took the belated action of banning 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-u-Dawah (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) terror vehicles.

The decision, announced by Pakistan's interior ministry, comes just hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a three-hour long National Security Committee (NSC) meeting in Islamabad in which the Pulwama terrorist attack carried out by the Pak-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad was discussed.

Around the same time as Imran Khan was chairing his meeting, in which Pak Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa was also present hence rendering the Pak PM's 'chairing' no more than an eyewash, the Modi government announced its decision to block the flow of its share of water into Pakistan and instead divert the waters for the benefit of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and the Punjab.

A spooked Pakistan's action against Hafiz Saeed needn't be seen as any form of crackdown, however, as a similar step had also been taken earlier, when under pressure over the 26/11 Mumbai attack, Pakistan had placed Saeed under what was clearly a sham house arrest. Saeed was left more than free to plot his terrorist schemes, and was also released months before the 2018 Pakistan elections, at which point he founded the Milli-Muslim League - a politico-terror vehicle - with which he participated in the elections. The JuD and FIF had also similarly been banned when Pakistan was in danger of being placed on the FATF (Financial Action Task Force - an intergovernmental money-laundering watchdog) grey list over terror financing. That ban was revoked immediately after the FATF's meeting concluded. A similar meeting is to be held once again.

Here is the official statement by the Pakistan government:

Jammat –ut- Dawa &  Falah-e- Insaniat Organizations Banned
 
Islamabad: February 21, 2019
 
A spokesman of Ministry of Interior has said that the National Security Committee in its meeting held today at Prime Minister Office reviewed the National Action Plan in detail. It was decided during the meeting to accelerate action against proscribed organizations.
 
It was further decided that Jamat-ut-Dawa and Falah-e- Insaniat Foundation be notified as proscribed organizations by the Ministry of Interior.

While India has already taken a number of diplomatic steps to isolate Pakistan globally, and hit it where it hurts in terms of revoking the Most Favoured Nation status and the move regarding water-sharing, the Pakistan government's game-plan thus far has been to pander to the ISI narrative, attempting to further antagonise India by levelling its usual allegations of human-rights violations in Kashmir, referring to the location of the attack as 'India Occupied Kashmir', and by talking up its own potency to retaliate in response to any action by the Indian security forces. PM Modi has said on numerous occasions that the security forces have been given a free hand to avenge the February 14 terrorist attack in which 40 CRPF Jawans had been martyred.