Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has reportedly been put under house arrest in Lahore on Monday, according to a spokesman for Saeed’s organisation.
Police arrived at the headquarters of the Jamaat ud Dawa charity that Saeed runs in the eastern city of Lahore with orders to place him under house arrest, JuD spokesman Yahya Mujahid told Reuters by telephone.
Saeed’s continued freedom has been a source of continuing friction between Pakistan and its longtime foe India as well as the United States.”These steps are being taken to please India,” Mujahid said.
Punjab government’s Home Department has issued detention order of Saeed and Lahore Police have reached JuD headquarters in Chauburji to implement the order, his outfit said. He “is at Masjid-e-Qadsia Chauburji and a heavycontingent of police has surrounded the JuD headquarters,” JuD official Ahmed Nadeem, who is present at the premises of the outfit, told by phone.
“The commanding police officer told us that he has with him the house arrest order of the JuD chief issued by the Punjab Home Department,” Nadeem said.
Punjab government’s action comes amidst pressure from the Trump administration to act against terror. The US has clearly told Islamabad that in case of not taking action against JuD and Saeed, it may face sanctions.
Saeed’s outlawed group has been involved in the anti-India insurgency in Kashmir and is also accused of several high-profile terror attacks across India. He is believed to have supervised one of the many training sessions of the ten attackers and also wished them luck and waved them off before they set sail for Mumbai near Karachi.
JuD is the front for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit which is responsible for numerous terror attacks in India, including the Mumbai terror strike of November 26,2008, which was masterminded by Saeed. JuD has already been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation’ by the United States in June 2014.
