Quick Flood Aid Wins Support for Islamist Charities in Pakistan

As frustration mounts in flood-ravaged Pakistani provinces over the government’s response to the disaster, Islamist aid groups—some of which international organizations say have links to terrorism—are gaining local support for their quick response, according to Reuters and The New York Times.

Groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity arm of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, quickly sent food, medicine, and other basic supplies and services to remote villages hard hit by flooding in the Indus river basin.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has long battled Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region, is blamed for the bloody Mumbai bombing in 2008, after which the United Nations put Jamaat-ud-Dawa on its terrorist blacklist.

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