Charities linked to jihadi groups used humanitarian aid operations in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after 2005's massive earthquake as a ruse to extend their influence over orphaned children to spread their extremist ideology, a media report said on Saturday.
According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, contrary to government rules that earthquake orphans must be cared for only by the state or relatives, large number of orphaned children in the affected areas since the earthquake last October have been taken into care by religious charities and Islamic schools.
The report from Muzaffarabad quoted a senior cleric, Qazi Mahmood-ul Hassan, who runs the Jamia Dar-Uloom al Islamia madrassa in PoK capital, saying that he had taken 55 orphans into care.
His madrassa helped the Al-Rashid Trust carry out relief work immediately after the earthquake last October.
Al-Rashid Trust has been accused by the United States of channeling funds to Al Qaeda. The cleric said hundreds of other orphans had been taken into care by other madrassas and Jamaat-ud Dawa, proscribed by America as a front for Lashkar-e-Tayiba, which is held responsible for various terrorist attacks in India.
"These people have taken orphans and they have a target of convincing people to accept their ideology," Hassan said.
Before Pakistan reversed its policy of supporting jihadi groups under pressure from America after September 11, the two groups were openly united, the report said.
Last week the US Treasury advised that charity organisations risked contributions being diverted to finance terrorist activities.
The report singled out Jamaat-ud-Dawa, accusing it of "exploitation".
It quoted a senior professional who works with Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Muzaffarabad saying that most of the members he worked with had waged "jihad" in Kashmir and Afghanistan.
He said the head of security at one of its hospitals was nicknamed "Dr Bomblast" because he was reputed to be a bomb-maker for terrorist operations.
"I do not trust them. They bring books in favour of jihad for the patients to read and preach a hard-line form of Islam. They do not allow radio or television on the wards," he said.
A BBC radio report broadcast this week included the lyrics of a madrassa morning assembly song recited by quake orphans: "When people deny our faith, ask them to convert, and if they do not, destroy them utterly."
A spokesman for Jamaat-ud Dawa, Abdullah Muntazir, was quoted in the report denying the charge that his organisation had taken care of any orphans and had any links to LeT.
"We are not preaching extremism," he said. "Perhaps we have influenced people but they were already committed to Islam."
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