Pakistan closes offices of Islamic charities

ISLAMABAD, Feb 18 (Reuters) Pakistan authorities began today to seal offices of two Islamic charities on a list of organisations whose assets the United Nations says should be frozen because of links to terrorism, government officials said.

Authorities shut down offices of Al-Rasheed Trust and Al-Akhtar Trust in different cities, including 21 offices of both groups in the southern province of Sindh, officials said.

''The action is being taken under our international obligations as under UN resolution 1267, they're not supposed to operate in Pakistan,'' said retired brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of an Interior Ministry crisis management unit.

''We have asked provincial government to take action against all organisations listed in the resolution and obviously, the two are among them,'' Cheema told Reuters.

All of the charities' offices would be shut, he said.

UN resolution 1267 requires all states to freeze the assets of people and organisations on a list established by the resolution.

Al-Rasheed was placed on the list in 2001 and Al-Akhtar in 2005 because of their suspected links with al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The Pakistani government froze Al-Rasheed's accounts after the September 11 attacks on the United States, but a court in 2003 declared the move illegal.

The groups have not been banned in Pakistan and a senior police official said they could continue their welfare work.

''We've been told by the federal government not to disrupt their welfare activities like hospitals and clinics,'' said the police official.

An Al-Rasheed official in the city of Rawalpindi, Maulana Ghiasuddin, criticised the government's action.

''It is cruel. We've been doing charity, nothing illegal.

Everything is clear and transparent so why this?'' he asked.

''Even those who sealed our office had no information on why it was being done,'' Ghiasuddin said.

REUTERS PDM KN1900