| Government has ordered a freeze on bank accounts belonging to a Kuwaiti aid organization that is suspected of having links to the al-Qaida terrorist network. The United Nations requested in March that the Lajnah al-Dawah al-Islamia group's assets be held, Pakistani central bank spokesman Syed Wasimudin said. He declined to give further details or say when the freeze was imposed. An Arab official of the group who spoke on condition of anonymity said the order came after the group was accused of having ties to al-Qaida. He denied the charges. The group began feeling effects of the order last week when banks in the northwest border town of Peshawar refused to cash employees' paychecks. The intelligence sources believe the group was run by Abu Hafs, the brother of al-Qaida's No. 3 man, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, during the 1980s to fund Islamic militants. |