(Reuters) – A Pakistani charity that the United States accuses of being a front for anti-India militant group that staged the 2008 Mumbai attacks has entered politics by forming a new party, charity officials said on Monday.

The new Milli Muslim League party will follow the ideology of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which the U.S. says is a front for banned militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and is run by Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people.

“We have decided to make a new political party, so that Pakistan is to made a real Islamic and welfare state,” said Milli Muslim League President Saifullah Khalid.

Tabish Qayoum, a JuD activist who will work as spokesman for Milli Muslim League, said the charity had filed registration papers for a new party with Pakistan’s electoral commission.

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