New Delhi: Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has won a court battle against the Pakistan government with the Lahore High Court restraining authorities from arresting or putting him under house arrest. According Dawn News, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday directed both Pakistan and Punjab governments not to arrest or put Hafiz Saeed, who masterminded the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed, under house arrest until further orders.
Hearing Saeed’s petition against his possible arrest, Justice Ameenuddin Khan asked the counsel of both governments to file reply in the court by April 4.
Saeed, in his petition, had appealed the court to bar any action against him “under international pressure”. The founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) said the government of Pakistan has plans to take adverse action against him.
“The PML-N government wants to arrest me at the behest of United States and India,” he said, adding that the US and Indian lobby for the last many years has been trying to prove that he was “somehow involved in Mumbai attacks”
Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008. The UNSC sanctions list includes the names of JuD, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, FIF and other groups and individuals.
In January, Pakistan banned companies and individuals from making donations to the JuD, the FIF and other organizations on the UNSC sanctions list
Saeed was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November, 2017. He was under detention since January, 2017.