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Saeed’s detention extended

Islamabad: Pakistani authorities have extended by two months the detention of Jamat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and seven other activists of the front organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks.

A spokesman for the Punjab government told reporters that the province’s Home Department on Saturday announced the decision.

Saeed and other Jamat leaders were placed under house arrest for a month on December 11 last year after the United Nations Security Council listed the group as a front for Lashkar. Saeed’s home in Johar Town area of Lahore was declared a “sub-jail.”

The Jamat leaders have been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance, which allows a person to be held for up to 90 days.

Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar told reporters last month that Saeed and other militant leaders detained by Pakistani authorities could not be tried in the absence of evidence against them.

The spokesman also said 10 schools and 18 dispensaries run by the Jamat in the province had been taken over by the authorities.

Seven Jamat publications had been banned and all copies had been confiscated, he said.

Among the other Jamat leaders whose detention was extended are: Col. (retd.) Nazir Ahmed, Amir Hamza, Yasin Baloch, Mufti Abdur Rahman and Qazi Niaz.

Though authorities have detained Jamat leaders, sealed the group’s offices across the country and frozen its bank accounts, local media reports described the measures as “half-hearted.”

The reports said Saeed, also the leader of the Lashkar, had been allowed to leave his home and that the Jamat’s sprawling headquarters at Muridke near Lahore was still fully operational. – PTI

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