The Punjab government on Friday filed a petition in Pakistan’s supreme court, challenging the release from house arrest of outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, linked to the Mumbai terror attacks.
The appeal against the Lahore high court order, filed in the apex court on Friday said Saeed needed to be detained for his own “protection”. Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, was freed on the Lahore high court’s orders on June 2 after spending six months under house arrest.
“He (Saeed) cannot move without informing the government,” Punjab government’s lawyer Rana Sanaullah said.
Pakistani officials maintain that the restrictions imposed on JuD by UN Security Council, “including a ban on travel and freezing the organisation’s bank accounts”, are being implemented. Saeed, 59, and several aides were placed under house arrest in December after the Mumbai terror attack after the UNSC declared his organisation a front for the LeT.
India had expressed concern at the delay by Pakistani authorities in appealing against Saeed’s release.
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