LAHORE: Rejecting the Pakistani government’s contention that Jamaatul
Daawa (JuD) ameer Hafiz Mohammad Saeed had been put under house arrest
due to his alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban links and he should remain
behind bars in the larger interest of Pakistan, a three member bench
of Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered his release, declaring his
detention illegal and unconstitutional and in violation of the
fundamental human rights.
Hafiz Saeed was under house arrest since December 11, 2008, following
a United Nations Security Council resolution tagging him and his JuD
as terrorist. The resolution held the JuD to be a front of the
similarly designated Lashkar-e-Taiba, which Pakistan had banned under
US pressure in 2002. The UN resolution came after the 26/11 Mumbai
attacks, for which the LeT has been accused. In response to the
resolution, Pakistan shut down the JuD, took over its Muridke campus,
and closed down its offices countrywide. It also detained over a
hundred of its cadres, aside from six top JuD leaders, four of which
had already been released and the remaining two – Saeed and Colonel
(retd) Nazir Ahmed, were released on Tuesday by the Lahore High Court.
The three member LHC bench, comprising Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry,
Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan and Justice Zubdatul Hussain, heard
arguments of the petitioners’ counsel on June 2, 2009 after those of
the attorney general of Pakistan and decided the habeas corpus
petition in Saeed’s favour, saying that it had not received
substantial evidence to continue the detention of the banned JuD
ameer. However, despite the court order, the Punjab government has not
yet released the Lahkar-e-Toiba founder and the provincial law
minister Rana Sanaullah has already announced the government’s intent
to challenge Saeed’s release orders in the court of law.
Earlier, on May 30th, 2009, while pleading that Saeed should remain
behind bars, the Pakistani government has presented documentary
evidence to Lahore High Court, linking his JuD to Al-Qaeda and
Taliban. The court was told that the JuD leaders were held after the
United Nations declared the group as a terrorist outfit following the
Mumbai terror attacks. Attorney General Latif Khosa said Pakistan is a
frontline ally on the war on terror and also a member of the United
Nations and it was bound to act against the JuD in line with the UN
Security Council’s December 10, 2008 sanctions imposed on the group.
Khosa was responding to a court query as to why JuD chief and his
close aide Colonel (retd) Nazir Ahmed had been detained.
The Attorney General told the court during an in-camera hearing that
one of the culprits involved in Mumbai attacks has links with JuD. The
court was further told that Ajmal Kasab, the lone gunman captured
alive during the Mumbai mayhem, has admitted to being a Pakistani
national and to being trained for the attacks by Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi,
the LeT’s chief operational commander and a close associate of Hafiz
Mohammad Saeed. The attorney general later informed the media that the
documents are related to national security; therefore he has presented
them in closed session of the court. The Punjab provincial government
also presented some secret documents about Hafiz Saeed’s alleged
terrorist links before the court.
However, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed’s counsel A.K. Dogar pleaded that the
federal government had no legal grounds to detain his clients because
the UN had only banned the JuD and not ordered the arrest of its
leadership. He insisted that the secret documents against the JuD
leaders should be presented in open court in Hafiz Saeed’s presence.
But without ruling on this, the Lahore High Court adjourned the
hearing till Monday and eventually decided the case on Tuesday. The
central secretary information of the JuD Yahya Mujahid has welcomed
the court ruling, saying: It has belied the Indian stance that Hafiz
Saeed and his organization were terrorists. “We hope the Pakistani
authorities will now withdraw the police force deployed outside his
Johar Town residence in Lahore and he would be allowed to move freely,
meet his family, friends and relatives and resume the relief work of
his party”, the spokesman added.
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