Security forces arrested Lakhvi and 14 others during a raid late Sunday on a camp in Azad Kashmir run by a charity linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Separately, security forces intercepted a car just outside Rawalpindi and arrested a suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militant, another security official said, giving no further details.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa is run by Hafiz Saeed, who founded Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1989. He abandoned the group when it was banned after India alleged it was behind an attack on parliament in New Delhi in 2001. The charity operates hospitals and relief camps in many parts of the country, and the arrests took place at their centre outside Muzaffarabad.
"The raid was carried out to get details about the activities of the group in Kashmir in the wake of allegations by India that LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) was using Pakistani territory for training," an intelligence official said.
The 15 arrested were members of the local branch of the charity, the official said. Military confirmed late Monday it has begun an operation targeting militant organisations in the wake of the attacks in Mumbai.
"The military confirms an operation of law enforcement is under way," it said in a statement issued after security forces launched a raid on Lashkar-e-Taiba, an group widely suspected of being behind the attacks.
"There have been arrests and investigations are ongoing," the statement said, adding further details would be released once preliminary investigations had been completed. Meanwhile, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba on Monday condemned a raid on a camp operated by his charity in which 15 people were arrested.
"The operation against jihadi organisations in Azad Kashmir is unwarranted and we strongly condemn it," said Hafiz Saeed.
"The government has shown signs of weakness by targeting Kashmiri organisations." "India wants to crush the independence movement of Kashmir using the Mumbai attacks as a pretext," said Saeed.