By IANS,
Islamabad : Pakistan’s Punjab provincial government Tuesday dissociated itself from the case against Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, who India says masterminded the 26/11 Mumbai mayhem, saying the federal government had not furnished “solid evidence” to warrant his continued house arrest.
The Punjab government’s move came before a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that had before it two identical petitions filed by the federal and Punjab governments against Saeed’s release by the Lahore High Court.
The action came on the eve of a planned meeting between Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Punjab Advocate General Raza Farooq told the court that the provincial government had put Saeed under house arrest on the directive of the federal government, APP news agency reported.
He said that the Punjab government had provided whatever evidence it had but the federal government did not provide further evidence.
Earlier, Farooq filed a petition in the court seeking withdrawal of the case.
The petition said the provincial government had challenged the Lahore High Court’s verdict on the directives of the federal government but the later failed to provide solid evidence on the basis of which the case could be pursued.
Saeed’s counsel A.K. Dogar contended that the orders for putting the JuD chief under house arrest were issued by the Punjab government and that the petitions had lapsed after the provincial government’s withdrawal from the case.
Deputy Attorney General Shah Khawar, noting that evidence had been gathered against Saeed and his associates and that consultations were underway with the Punjab government in this regard, asked for more time for this.
The court then adjourned the case till Thursday.
Saeed is the founder of the Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group that New Delhi accuses of staging the Dec 13, 2001 attack on the Indian parliament. The LeT had morphed into the JuD after it was banned in the aftermath of the attack.
The Lahore High Court had released him June 2, citing insufficient evidence.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive during the Mumbai mayhem, has admitted to being a Pakistani national and to being trained by the LeT for the Mumbai attacks.
Saeed was detained last December after the United Nations declared the JuD a terrorist group.
He was originally detained for one month and this had been successively extended. On May 5, his detention was extended by 60 days.
After the UN action, the authorities arrested some 40 JuD members and closed dozens of its offices and relief units in the country.
India had in January handed over a dossier to Pakistan linking the LeT and some Pakistani nationals to the Mumbai carnage that claimed the lives of over 170 people, including 26 foreigners.
In February, Pakistan admitted that part of the Mumbai conspiracy was planned in this country and also submitted a list of 30 questions on the Indian dossier over the evidence on the Mumbai attack.
India replied to this in March. Pakistan then sought another set of clarifications that India has provided. Also in December 2008, Pakistani authorities arrested LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi after India handed over to the FBI intercepts of telephone conversations between him and the Mumbai attackers.
The FBI concluded that the intercepts were genuine and that Lakhvi was the handler of the Mumbai attackers.
Four of Lakhvi’s associates – Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hammad Amin Saddiq and Shahid Jameel Riaz – have also been jailed.