By IANS,
Lahore : The Lahore High Court Monday extended the house arrest of Hafeez Saeed, head of the banned outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and four others by 60 days.
Hafiz Saeed was presented before the review board of the court along with his four aides under high security, The News reported.
The Punjab government pleaded to the court to extend the house arrest of the banned outfit’s leaders. However, Saeed’s counsel Zafar Iqbal opposed the government’s request.
The judicial review board of the Lahore High Court, comprising three judges, extended the house arrest of Saeed and three of his key aides, Haji Amir Hamza, Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed and Mufti Abdur Rehman by 60 days.
However, they did not accede to the authorities’ request to prolong the house arrest of two other JuD leaders, Qazi Kashif Niaz and Qari Yasin Baloch, and ordered that they be freed.
Saeed was placed under house arrest in December along with other LeT leaders after the UN proscribed the Jamaat-ud Daawa — which the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba had morphed into after being banned in the wake of the Dec 13, 2001, attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi says the LeT staged.
The UN action followed evidence submitted by India and the US that the LeT were involved in the Mumbai attacks in which 170 people, including foreigners, were killed.