Pakistan turns screw on charity linked to Mumbai attacks

ISLAMABAD, (AFP)

Pakistan on Friday tightened the screw on an Islamic charity linked to militants suspected of being behind the Mumbai massacre, arresting dozens of members and placing a local leader under house arrest.

Under intense international pressure to crack down on militant organisations on its soil in the wake of last month's deadly attacks, Islamabad has focused on Jamaat-ud-Dawa, shuttering offices across the country.

Pakistan late Thursday placed the charity's leader Hafiz Saeed under house arrest and ordered its assets frozen after the United Nations listed it as a terror group.

Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said Friday the government had no choice but to act on the UN ruling.

"We can fight our enemies but not the whole world," he told journalists as he greeted Pakistanis returning from the annual hajj pilgrimage at the main airport in Islamabad.

"We will not allow anybody to destabilise the country. Had we not implemented the resolution we would have been declared a terrorist state."