MURIDKE, Pakistan — Pakistan moved aggressively Thursday against an Islamic charity with links to militants suspected in the Mumbai attacks, freezing the group’s assets, putting its leaders under house arrest and padlocking its offices.
The moves against Jamat-ud-Dawa could help convince India and the United States that Pakistan is cracking down on militants blamed for the Nov. 26-29 assaults, but it also risks igniting Muslim anger at its already shaky secular government.
The action came a day after the United Nations listed Jamat-ud-Dawa as a front group for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the strikes. The U.N. also subjected Jamat-ud-Dawa to sanctions as a terrorist group, including an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
Pakistan has already announced the arrests of 20 militants — including two alleged by India to have masterminded the attacks — and has vowed to cooperate with its neighbor.
India, which says the attacks were carried by Pakistanis as well as plotted and directed by militants in Pakistan, remains skeptical of the response so far.
Jamat-ud-Dawa promotes a hard-line brand of Islam and is virulently anti-Indian. It also runs hundreds of schools and clinics across Pakistan and has helped the victims of two recent earthquakes.
The moves against Jamat- ud-Dawa coincided with a visit to Pakistan by Deputy U.S. Secretary of State John Negroponte, the second trip by a top-ranking American official in a week.
Washington says it has seen no evidence any Pakistani state agency was involved in planning or carrying out the Mumbai attacks — something that could prompt New Delhi to launch military strikes against Pakistan.
The Mumbai attacks provoked a public outcry in India over the government’s failure to detect the plot. On Thursday, India said it would create an FBI-style national investigative agency as part of a massive security overhaul.
It was the government’s first detailed response to widespread public anger over security and intelligence failures in the attacks. Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has previously apologized for government “lapses” in the assault.
The new agency will coordinate with state and local police to analyze tips and intelligence, said Chidambaram, the country’s top law enforcement official.
