Musharraf quit Rabita before it was blacklisted

HT Correspondent
(New Delhi, October 13)

President Pervez Musharraf had resigned from the board of the Rabita Welfare Trust just before the Bush Administration yesterday included the Pakistan-based organisation in its fresh hit list of 39 individuals and entities.

He was tipped off about the imminent ban by Washington, according to a report in Saturday’s New York Times.

India had given clinching evidence of Musharraf's role as patron and honorary president of the trust, which is part of the Rabita al-Alam al-Islam (Muslim World League).

It is the apex body for funding groups ostensibly involved in charity projects for poor Muslims around the world. But that is just a cover for funding terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and Chechnya.

The US, after checking out the veracity of the Indian inputs (the US and India have a Joint Working Group on Anti-Terrorism), included Rabita in the hit list.

Bush administration officials confirmed to the New York Times that Musharraf had been warned of the impending order and “encouraged to disassociate himself” from the organisation.

Along with the Rabita Welfare Trust, the US government has also listed Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Britain has done likewise. The US new list is significant in that all the individuals and entities named are based in countries whose co-operation is actively being sought by the United States in "Operation Enduring Freedom".