Pak frees 26/11 mastermind

RELEASE A review board turns down Pak Punjab govt’s request for threemonth extension of Saeed’s house arrest ISLAMABAD:

A Pakistani judicial review board on Wednesday set aside a request from authorities to extend the house arrest of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and ordered his immediate release.

Saeed, accused of masterminding the terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people nearly nine years ago, had been placed under house arrest in January, largely because of pressure from the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force that tracks terror financing.

The government of Punjab province had sought a threemonth extension in Saeed’s detention but the request was turned down by a judicial review board. Saeed, who now heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, is scheduled to be released on Thursday.

“The government is ordered to release JuD chief Hafiz Saeed if he is not wanted in any other case,” the review board said.

During a hearing by the judicial review board on Tuesday, the Punjab government had said Pakistan might face sanctions from the international community if the JuD chief is released. The board comprises judges of the Lahore high court.

Saeed, through his lawyer AK Dogar, had challenged his detention and contended that requirements laid by the Supreme Court had not been fulfilled.

Under Pakistani laws, the government can detain a person for up to three months under different charges but an extension in that detention requires approval from a judicial review board.

On January 31, Saeed and four aides – Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain – were detained by the Punjab government for 90 days under the AntiTerrorism Act 1997.

Saeed’s aides were freed in the last week of October after the Punjab government did not extend the notification for their detention under the Anti-Terrorism Act and withdrew an application pending before the federal review board.

Saeed has lived freely in the city of Lahore and addressed rallies and gatherings across Pakistan

despite the United States offering a $10 million bounty for him in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The JuD has been described by the US and the United Nations as a front for the banned LeT, which was blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

AP Hafiz Saeed, head of the Pakistani religious party, JamaatudDawa, gestures outside a court in Lahore on Wednesday following his release. The former leader of a banned militant group is accused of masterminding the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai in...