LAHORE, Dec 11: Jamaatud Dawa Amir Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was placed under house arrest for three months as the countrywide crackdown on the organisation continued on Thursday.

Police sealed Qudsia Mosque, the headquarters of Jamaatud Dawa in Chauburji Chowk, and 18 other offices throughout Punjab.

Five offices were sealed in Sialkot. Twenty-five members of the organisation, including Ameer Hamza, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Maulana Naseer Hamza, Saifullah Mansoor, Dawa’s director of public relations, Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed, and Rajanpur district president Talib Rehman, were detained. A large number of publications of the organisation were seized.

Hafiz Saeed was detained at his Johar Town residence under the maintenance of public order ordinance.

“Police have encircled the house of Hafiz Saeed and told him he cannot leave his home. They have told him that the detention order will be formally issued shortly,” his spokesman Abdullah Montazir said.

A police official told Dawn that detention orders had also been issued by the Punjab home department and raids were being conducted to arrest Yahya Mujahid, Abu Umer a number of other prominent members.

Sources said that an office of the organisation on Chamberlain Road, in Gawalmandi, had been sealed a few days ago.

In Peshawar, police sealed the provincial office of Jamaatud Dawa in Fowara Chowk.

However, Attiqur Rehman Chohan, the provincial spokesman for the Dawa, told Dawn from an unspecified place that the organisation had decided to close its offices in Peshawar and other cities and suspend its activities for the time being.

He said group’s leaders were in touch with the provincial government and major political parties and the issue would be raised in the national and provincial assemblies.

Security forces raided an office of the Dawa in Parhana area of Mansehra district and arrested five of its activists. Sources said that security personnel had sealed the relief camp-cum-office a day before Eidul Azha.

Six members of the organisation were arrested from its main relief camp on the Karakoram Highway, near Ghazikot Township, on Wednesday.

It was learnt that the district administration and police had not been informed about the raids.

In Rawalpindi, police sealed the Dawa’s local office on Circular Road.

The group’s office in Quetta was also sealed.

In Karachi, police sealed the central office of the Dawa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

City police chief Waseem Ahmed told Dawn that the office was sealed on a directive of the federal government and efforts were being made to track down top leaders of the religious outfit.

The government banned Jamaatud Dawa, arrested its top leaders, sealed its offices throughout the country and Azad Kashmir, froze its bank accounts and cancelled the declaration of its publication after the United Nations blacklisted the organisation for its alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks and links with Al Qaeda, interior ministry sources said.

However, there was no official announcement about the banning of the organisation which was expected after a meeting of top security officials at the Foreign Office late in the night.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told PTV that India had so far not provided any evidence about Pakistanis’ involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

He did not speak about any ban on the Dawa, but said the crackdown on the organisation was planned sometime ago. He said no one would be allowed to use Pakistani territory against any country. A spokesman for the State Bank said the central bank had frozen bank accounts of the organisation, its leaders and sister organisations — Al-Rashid Trust and Al-Akhtar Trust.