Abdullah Muntazir

Who is Abdullah Muntazir?

Abdullah Muntazir is an expert on Islamic militancy based in Islamabad, Pakistan. In 1997 he started his journalistic career as a special correspondent for Daily Ausaf, an Islamabad-based Urdu newspaper published in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He also worked for Daily Asas as a correspondent from Muzaffarabad for a short period of time.

He is founder editor of Weekly Ghazwah, an Urdu newspaper once run by the Islamic charity and proselytization/preaching organization Jamaat-ud-Dawah, accused of being the front group for prime suspects of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. This newspaper was banned in December 2008 when the Government of Pakistan outlawed Jamat-ud-Dawah, complying with the United Nations Security Council’s Taliban and Al Qaeda Sanction Committee’s decision to proscribe the charity. The charity has challenged the Security Council ban, claiming that the allegations are baseless, and has filed an appeal for delisting.

Muntazir had also served as Jamat-ud-Dawah’s spokesman for international media, from 2005 to January 2009. but when Jamat-ud-Dawah was outlawd in Pakistan he left the charity in early 2009 to resume his journalistic career.