Hafiz Saeed's seminaries, dispensaries took over in Punjab
Islamabad: Pakistan's Punjab government has launched a crackdown on seminaries and health facilities run by the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Rawalpindi.
The action came after a high-level UN sanctions team visited Rawalpindi in January to review progress against groups and individuals banned by the UN.
Following orders by the Pakistan government, the Rawalpindi administration took control of a seminary and four dispensaries run by JuD and its charity wing Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).
The seminary was handed over to the Auqaf Department, which controls the religious properties, while the dispensaries were given to the Health Department.
"The district administration teams have visited the seminaries, but JuD has denied any link with the madrassas," a senior district official told Dawn. He said the government had taken control of madrassa Hudabia -- which comprised a college, a school and a seminary -- and started conducting an audit of its finances to check details of the funding and expenditures.
He said a similar operation would also be launched in Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum districts.
Pakistan has come under intense pressure to act against terror groups after US President Donald Trump, in his first tweet of 2018, announced cutting all further aid to Islamabad on charges of "harboring terrorists".
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India, China decide to resume Kailash Mansarovar Yatra
New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI): India and China on Monday decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra as the two sides agreed to take certain people-centric steps to "stabilise and rebuild" ties.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said this following Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's talks with his Chinese counterpart Sun Weidong in Beijing.
It said the two sides also agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries.
"As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at their meeting in Kazan in October, the two sides reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilize and rebuild ties," the MEA said.
"In this context, the two sides decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025," it said.
The MEA said the two sides also agreed to hold an early meeting of the India-China expert level mechanism to discuss resumption of provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers.
It said the two sides agreed to take appropriate measures to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions.
"They agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries; the relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date," the MEA said.
