Pakistan detains top Mumbai attacks suspect

LAHORE: Protests were planned in Pakistan’s major cities yesterday after authorities detained one of the alleged masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks after years of pressure to act against his group.

Firebrand cleric Hafiz Saeed, who heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) group and has a US$10 million (RM44 million) US bounty on his head, is to be placed under “preventative detention”, according to an order from the interior ministry.

Police took Saeed away from a mosque in Lahore late Monday and escorted him to his residence where they appear to be holding him under house arrest.

“My detention orders are unlawful and we will challenge them in the court,” Saeed said before he was led away by police.

“These orders have come from Washington,” he claimed.

JuD, listed as a terror outfit by the United Nations, is considered by the US and India to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant group blamed for the attack on India’s financial capital.

Saeed is believed by the US to be one of the masterminds of the attack.

JuD organisers said yesterday that protests were planned in major cities including Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.

The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world as commandos battled the heavily armed gunmen, who arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, 2008. It took the authorities three days to regain control of the city.

New Delhi has long said there is proof that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack but Islamabad denies the charge.

For years JuD operated freely across the country, popular for its charity work especially in the wake of natural disasters, and despite the bounty, Saeed led a highprofile public life.

India has long seethed at Pakistan’s failure either to hand over or prosecute those accused of planning the Mumbai attacks, while Pakistan has alleged that India failed to give it crucial evidence.

It was unclear why Pakistan chose to take action now. – AFP