'USAID chief visited JuD arm's relief camp in Pak'

Conflicting claims were made on Wednesday about the visit of United States Agency for International Development's Indian-origin chief Rajiv Shah to a relief camp, run by a front organisation of Jamaat-ud-Dawah, in Pakistan's flood-hit Sindh province and his handing over of aid to it.

JuD spokesman Yahya Mujahid said USAID Administrator Shah had visited the relief camp run by Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation at Sukkur in Sindh.

"He handed over two trucks of relief materials for distribution among the flood victims," Mujahid told PTI.

The US embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire denied that the camp visited by Shah was run by Falah-e-Insaniyat. He told PTI that 'Save the Children', which receives US funding, is providing supplies to the camp.

Snelsire did not rule out the possibility that Falah- e-Insaniyat may have provided aid to the camp in the past. Journalists who visited the camp, located within a school, said they had seen a banner with the words "RELIEF CAMP FALAH-E-INSANIYAT FOUNDATION" hanging at its entrance.

A statement issued by JuD quoted Shah as saying that the JuD has been "actively taking part in operations to provide relief to flood victims".

The statement also quoted USAID's Indian-origin chief as expressing appreciation for the work done by the JuD, which is headed by Hafiz Saeed, whom India blames for masterminding the Mumbai terror attack.

Senior JuD leader Hafiz Abdur Rauf, who is chairman of the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, said the body has been working with international relief agencies to provide aid to flood victims.

He said international bodies should come forward to provide more aid to the people affected by the deluge. The Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation is a front for the JuD.

It was formed after the Pakistan government clamped down on the JuD in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The foundation came to prominence last year when it set up camps to help the thousands of people displaced by anti-Taliban operations in northwest Pakistan.

People who have visited camps set up for flood victims by Falah-e-Insaniyat, including Western journalists, have reported seeing JuD flags and banners.

Photographs of volunteers working at these camps have shown them sporting the JuD's emblem on their clothes. The JuD was formed by Saeed after the Lashker-e-Tayiba was banned during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Saeed claims the JuD has no links with the LeT. When the United Nations Security Council banned the JuD in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, it described the group as a front for the LeT.

Image: USAID chief Rajiv Shah