Mumbai Terror Mastermind Hafiz Saeed Set Free
The Mumbai Terror Attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, the chief of banned Islamist organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been released by the Lahore High Court.
Talking to reporters at Lahore, a JuD spokesperson said that Saeed, who was under house arrest since December 12 last year, had been set free.
Claiming that JuD is not a terrorist organization, the spokesperson said that Saeed is not a terrorist either.
The high court described the detention of Saeed as illegal and hence freed him, said AK Dogar, his lawyer.
“The court has ordered that the detention of Hafiz Saeed was a violation of the constitution and the law of this country,” the lawyer said.
Pakistani government had handed evidences to the Lahore High Court on May 30, which linked the Mumbai terror mastermind Saeed to al-Qaida.
Saeed is the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group that India blames for the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. The LeT had merged into the JuD after the Pakistani government banned it under international pressure in the wake of the Dec 13, 2001 attack on Parliament that New Delhi blamed on the terror group.
It should be noted that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive during the terror strike, has confessed being a Pakistani national and being trained by the LeT for the Mumbai attacks.
Saeed was detained last December after the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a frontal organisation of the LeT, as a terrorist group.
After the UN action, the authorities arrested some 40 JuD members and closed dozens of its offices and relief units in the country.
India had in January handed over a dossier to Pakistan linking the LeT and some Pakistani nationals to the Mumbai carnage that claimed the lives of over 170 people, including 26 foreigners.
In February, Pakistan admitted that part of the Mumbai conspiracy was planned in this country and also submitted a list of 30 questions on the Indian dossier of the evidence on Mumbai attack.
India replied to this in March. Pakistan then sought another set of clarifications that India has provided.
