A petition challenging the house arrest of Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed was filed on Friday in a Pakistani court by a lawyer who claimed that the JuD chief was detained illegally for keeping the Kashmir issue alive.
Advocate Sarfraz Hussain filed the petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC). He said the JuD chief has been put under “illegal” detention by manoeuvring the anti-terrorism law.
“The government has detained Mr. Saeed citing a resolution of the United Nations Security Council as he made the Kashmir issue alive. But the UNSC’s resolution for plebiscite in the Indian-held Kashmir has not yet been implemented. The government has detained him at the behest of the foreign masters,” he said.
The petitioner prayed to the court to accept the petition instantly and “set Mr Saeed free in the larger interest of justice, equity and fair play to meet the ends of justice”.
An official of Jamaat-Ud-Dawa (JuD) told PTI that Saeed would challenge his detention soon.
“The JuD has nothing to do with advocate Sarfraz Hussain’s petition as he has filed the petition on his own,” he said.
However, a source in the LHC said Hussain has filed the petition at the behest of JuD.
The LHC will fix the date of hearing later.
The government on Monday placed Saeed and his four accomplices —— Abdullah Ubaid, Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Niaz — under house arrest in Lahore.
The Interior Ministry also placed Saeed and 37 other JuD and Falah-e-Insanyat members on the Exit Control List (ECL), barring them from leaving the country.
