Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed will continue to remain under house arrest after the Lahore High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing in his detention case to 3 July.
A division bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan had reserved the decision on 7 June after the Punjab government law officer submitted a reply and Saeed’s counsel advocate AK Dogar completed his arguments.
According to the Punjab government’s reply, Saeed and his aides – Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain – were detained on the instruction of the federal government for their alleged involvement in activities prejudicial to peace and security of the country.
Detention “Illegal”
The government had also submitted the report of the judicial review board on the detention of Saeed and his aides.
In his arguments, Dogar had said that the government did not produce the petitioners before the judicial review board prior to the expiry of their detention period on 30 April and extended their detention on its own.
He argued that extending the detention period without the mandatory approval of the review board was “illegal”.
Dogar claimed the government detained the petitioners to “please India and America only”.
He said the courts of the country in the past had declared detention of the JuD chief illegal as government failed to prove its charges against him.
Saeed last month had appeared before the review board and told it that he had been detained by the Pakistani government in order to “stop him for raising voice for the Kashmiris”.
The federal interior ministry rejected his arguments and told the board that “Saeed and his four aides have been detained for spreading terrorism in the name of Jihad”.
On 30 April, detention of Saeed and his four aides was extended by the Punjab government for another 90 days under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
The Punjab government on 30 January had put the five men under house arrest in Lahore under the Second Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
JuD is believed to be the front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The organisation is accused of involvement in militant activities in India and has already been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2014.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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