Hafiz Saeed's release will lead to unrest, Punjab govt tells Lahore High Court

Islamabad: The Punjab Government in Pakistan had said that releasing Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed from house arrest will lead to unrest.

According to Dawn, the Punjab Home Ministry, in a written reply submitted before the Lahore High Court (LHC) during the hearing of an appeal for the release of JuD chief, had said that releasing Hafiz Saeed would likely create a situation of unrest in the province.

However, during the hearing, Saeed's counsel AK Khokhar had argued that Saeed's detention was illegal and baseless, thus the LHC should rule in favour of the defendant and discard the order of keeping JuD leader under house arrest.

"The defendant was put under house arrest after the US threatened to cut Pakistan's aid; it was done without any cases being registered against him," Khokhar argued. 

Upon this, the judges pointed out that the defendant's lawyer had made no mention of the US's alleged pressure in the case. They added that the defendant's application is based on a news clipping. 

The Home Ministry, on the other hand, said that the JuD chief was put under house arrest under the anti-terrorism laws to keep him from collecting funds — which is a violation of various resolutions of the United Nations. 

After listening to the arguments from both sides, the court asked Khokhar to present more arguments in the next hearing, while adjourning the case until Sept 15. 

Saeed has been accused by the United States and India of masterminding the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial capital Mumbai that killed 166 people.

He, however, has repeatedly denied involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. In 2012, the United States announced a bounty of $10-million on Hafiz Saeed for his alleged role in the attack in which six American citizens were also killed.