When Pakistani authorities put India’s most wanted man, Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, under preventive detention on January 31 along with his close aides in Lahore, there were very few takers for the action internationally. Even military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor’s assurance that it was a national policy decision with the backing of the military could not attract much attention.
India came up with a cautious reaction saying such detentions had happened in the past too, and unless no concrete step was taken to prosecute Saeed, the crackdown made little sense. With no surprise, India is proving to be right again. Almost six weeks have passed and the Pakistani authorities are yet to set up any inquiry committee to recommend trial against the JuD chief and his accomplices as required by Section 11E of the Anti-Terror Act under which Saeed was arrested. It says an inquiry commission should be constituted to probe the matter and file the charge sheet in the court within 60 days.
Instead, Saeed had challenged the government action in the Lahore High Court, as he did in 2008 and 2009. His lawyer A.K. Dogar said it would not be difficult to get him free yet again. “There is no case registered against him and the government has to prove that he was involved in terrorist activity within Pakistan in case it wants the detention to be continued or charge sheet to be filed. I am confident that as per past precedents, the court will eventually set him free,” he claimed.
No response
The Lahore High Court has already issued notices to the government on the petition of Saeed, but no response has come so far. The case was to be heard on March 7 but the bench has been reconstituted and a new date is yet to be given. Regarding the UN’s designation of the JuD as a terrorist organisation, his lawyers said the same argument was taken up by the government in the past and was rejected by the courts on the basis that the UN never directed the government to arrest Saeed.
Saeed remains at his Model Town residence in Lahore and is holding consultations with his aides over the next plan of action. There were signs that the JuD may take up a political role before the 2018 general elections. Analysts believe any attempt to neutralise the JuD will be resisted. “The JuD is the biggest non-state actor with huge infrastructure, which can be compared with mainstream religious party Jamaat-e-Islami,” says Amir Rana, a security analyst and author of several books, including A to Z of Jehadi Organizations in Pakistan .
In terms of offices and activists, the JuD has the biggest presence in Punjab, in all 36 districts. Similarly, it is also present in 26 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and 23 districts of Sindh. Sources within the organisation claim that it has operations in 29 out of the 30 districts of the conflict-hit Balochistan, which borders with Afghanistan and Iran. A JuD leader requesting anonymity said the organisation has trained more than 2 million members across Pakistan.
Pressure tactics
Both India and the U.S. have said that Saeed was involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. India has been relentlessly taking up the issue with the U.S. and the UN alleging that Pakistan is not taking action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks. Pakistani authorities claim that India has not presented enough evidence.
An eight-member Pakistani commission, which came to India for recording the statements of witnesses, complained that they were not given any tangible evidence. But media reports claimed in January that the new Donald Trump Administration had warned Pakistan to impose sanctions in case Saeed remained free.
This forced the Pakistani authorities to hasten up a response in January. However, in less than two months, the detention is looking to meet the same fate as the previous detentions. With a new wave of terror hitting Pakistan in February and the focus of the government and the military shifting towards terrorists operating from Afghanistan, Saeed could soon be free again.
