Hafiz Saeed, head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa organisation and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), gestures while addressing his supporters in Karachi, Jan. 25, 2015.
In picture: Hafiz Saeed.Reuters File

The Pakistan government has decided to withdraw the request for extending the detention of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, under the anti-terrorism law.

Hafiz Saeed's brother-in-law Makki takes charge as Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief after 26/11 mastermind's detention

Saeed and four of his accomplices were detained by the Punjab government on January 31 for 90 days under preventative detention under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. They had been put on house arrest.

House arrest lifted

According to a PTI report, an official of the Home Department of Punjab government of Pakistan told a three-member federal judicial review board that the extension of Saeed and his four accomplices' detention was not needed anymore.

"The provincial government does not require extension to the detention of Saeed, his aides - Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain - under the anti-terrorism law. Therefore, it requests the board to accept the withdrawal of extension for the detention of Jamaat-u-Dawah (JuD) leaders," the official stated.

The board headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan of the Supreme Court then accepted the government's plea and disposed of the matter.

Why was the detention lifted

A senior official of the Punjab government told PTI that since the government had already extended the detention of Saeed and four others till October 24, under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance 1960, it is not required to have them house arrested under the anti-terrorism law.

Hafiz Saeed
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed (R), chief of the Islamic charity organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), leaves after he appeared before a court to challenge his house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan, May 13, 2017.Reuters

Saeed and his aides were to appear before Khan and his board for their detention under 11 EEE (I) (Power to arrest and detain suspected persons if necessary) and 11D of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 (Observation Order).

"But since all five of them are detained under the public order there was no binding on the government to produce them before the review board today to seek an extension to their detention," the official told PTI.

On July 28, the detention of Saeed and his aides had been extended to September 25 under the public order.

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