"Banned" terror outfit JuD whipping up anti-US feelings in Swat refugee camps: NYT

New York, July 2 (ANI): The goodwill the United States was hoping to garner from the thousands of displaced people in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, in return for aid being doled out by it, is being sabotaged by banned outfits such as the Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) and other radical charities.

The United States, which is providing huge humanitarian aid to Pakistan, aims to wean away the anti-US feelings from people's hearts here, while the 'Jihadists' in the name of Islamic charities do not want America to succeed.

These hard-line humanitarian agencies do not want any favourable opinion regarding the US to creep-up into the minds of the displaced people, and are pushing their anti-Western agenda to sour public opinion against the war and the United States, a report in the New York Times said.

As of now the Islamists are in the lead, the report said.

These hard core Islamist organizations are fanning anti-US feelings in the refugee camps, and are propagating hatred against the West by holding it responsible for the war which has caused much suffering to the people.

"The Western organizations have spent millions and billions on family planning to destroy the Muslim family system," the report quoted one such aid director Mehmood ul-Hassan, telling people in the one of the camps.

Hassan belongs to Al Khidmat, a powerful charity of the strongly anti-American political party, Jamaat-e-Islami.

Pakistan authorities have also denied permission to American officials to supervise the relief work, which is also acting against them, the report said.

There are deep concerns that the relief camps are being used by the banned terror outfits to ratchet support against the US, it added.

"Because of the lack of international agencies, there is a vacuum filled by actors that are Islamist and more than that, jihadist," a senior advocate with Washington based Refugees International, Kristele Younes said.

Pakistan officials claimed that no jihadist organizations had access to the refugee camps.

The head of the Pakistani Army's disaster management group, Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmad claimed that the banned Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD), the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have been barred from the relief camps, but it is still carrying on its work under a new name 'Falah-e-Insaniya', the report said.

The General however admitted, that the substantial amount of American aid which is getting through the camps is not branded as American, and Pakistani authorities have insisted that it be delivered in a 'subtle' manner.

Certainly, this is not what American officials had hoped for, as they were looking to improve Washington's image in Pakistan similar to what happened during the earthquake relief, the report concluded. (ANI)