Pakistan Government Gives 61 Million Aid to India's Most Wanted Hafiz Saeed

Lahore: Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the parent body of banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba that carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been allocated over 61 million in the budget for current fiscal by Pakistan's Punjab province government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party PML-N.

Besides a grant-in-aid of over 61 million in its budget for fiscal 2013-14 for 'Markaz-e-Taiba', the largest centre of the JuD, the provincial government has allocated 350 million for setting up a "Knowledge Park" at the centre and other development initiatives.

Details of the allocations were presented in budget documents tabled in the Punjab Assembly by the PML-N government led by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

One document stated: "Grant-in-aid to chief administrator Muridkey Markaz (is) 61.35 million".

The JuD's centre is located at Muridkay on the outskirts of Lahore.

In his budget speech in the assembly, Finance Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman announced that the provincial government "intends to establish a Knowledge Park in Muridkey".

He said the government had allocated 350 million for the park and several other initiatives in Punjab.

Shortly after the UN Security Council designated the JuD a front for the LeT in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, the Punjab government took over the centre in Muridkey.