Pakistan extends LeT chief Hafiz Saeed's house arrest

Pakistan has extended by two months the house arrest of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the founder chief of banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is blamed by India for the Mumbai terror attacks.

Saeed was detained in December after the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a frontal organisation of the LeT, as a terrorist group.

The extension of the original one-month detention was ordered by the provincial government in Punjab province where JuD was headquartered, Daily Times reported on Sunday.

“His house has been declared a sub-jail where he will spend the rest of the detention period,” a provincial official said, adding the detention was extended on orders from the federal government.

After UN sanctions were imposed, the authorities arrested some 40 members of the group and closed dozens of its offices and relief units in the country, the newspaper reported.

India has handed over a dossier to Pakistan linking LeT and some Pakistani nationals to the Mumbai carnage that left over 170 people dead Nov 26-29.

Pakistan prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that Islamabad had given India feedback on New Delhi's evidence about the Mumbai attacks. India says it is yet to receive the response.