Alleged Mumbai terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed is showered with flower petals outside a court in Lahore. Photo: Reuters / Mohsin Raza.

Pakistan has officially banned two charities linked to Islamist leader Hafiz Saeed, an official said on Wednesday, in a move against the UN-designated “terrorist” that the United States says was behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka at the city’s Chabad center.

The move comes days before a key meeting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering watchdog, that will consider a US-sponsored motion to place Pakistan on a list of countries failing to prevent terrorism financing.

Punjab Provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the Ministry of the Interior issued a notification against Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) this week.

“We have received the interior ministry directions, and according to that, Hafiz Saeed and his charities, like JuD and FIF, have been banned to operate in Pakistan,” Sanaullah told Reuters.

“As per the instructions, we have already started taking over all the facilities, offices, schools, dispensaries, and seminaries which belong to the JuD and FIF.”