ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday banned eleven more charities linked with militant groups, the interior ministry said, part of its most intense push in years to crackdown against Islamic welfare organizations that the United States says are a front for terror activities.

Pakistan is facing pressure from global powers to act against groups carrying out attacks in India, including Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack that killed at least 40 Indian paramilitary police in Indian-administered Kashmir. This month, a UN Security Council committee blacklisted the head of the JeM, Masood Azhar, subjecting him to an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze.

In March, Pakistan began a major crackdown on Islamist militant groups, announcing it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people.

“Ministry of interior has proscribed the following entities in pursuance of National Action Plan,” the interior minister said in a statement referring to Pakistan’s official counterterrorism blueprint, “and added the following organizations under proscribed list for being affiliated with Jamat ud Dawah, Falah-e-Insaniyat and Jaish-e-Muhammad.”

The banned outfits are: Al Anfal Trust, Lahore, Idara e Khidmat Khalaq, Lahore, Al Dawat ul Irshad, Lahore, Al Hamd Trust, Lahore, Al Hamd Trust, Faisalabad, Mosque and Welfare Trust, Lahore, Al Madinah Foundation, Lahore, Muaz bin Jabal Education Trust, Lahore, Al Eesar Foundation, Lahore, Al Rehmat Trust Organization, Bahawalpur and Al Furqan Trust, Karachi.

In February, Pakistan had banned both the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation charities over their links with Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar e Taiba militant group that India blames for an attack in its financial hub of Mumbai in 2008 in which 166 people were killed.

In June last year, the Paris-based terror financing watchdog FATF placed Pakistan on its “grey list” of countries with inadequate controls to tackle money-laundering and terror financing.