Pakistan on Monday ordered that Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed be placed under arrest and put him on the exit control list, reported Reuters. Four other JuD members have also been detained. Saeed is the alleged mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people.
The Pakistan government has deployed a heavy contingent of police around the JuD headquarters and offices in Muridke and Lahore, reported Dawn News. Saeed is currently under detention at Jamia-al-Qadsia in Lahore and will be later shifted to his residence in Johar Town, which will be declared a sub-jail. Along with Saeed, Falah-E-Insaniat Foundation, the charity wing of JuD, will also be monitored.
Banners of JuD have been removed from the roads of Lahore and instead of party flags, national flags were hoisted at JuD offices, the Dawn report added. Saeed has been detained under Section 11-EEE(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1977. A Defence Ministry official told Reuters that Pakistan had been feeling the pressure from the US since President Donald Trump took over as he “is taking hard decisions against Muslim countries”.
The interior ministry’s statement said JuD was under observation since 2010, reported Pakistan’s Dunya News TV. The United Nations Security Council had imposed sanctions on JuD and Saeed in December 2008 for supporting the al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The US, which had declared JuD a terrorist organisation in 2014, had earlier offered $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. JuD is a front for the banned Lashkars-e-Taiba militant organisation. India had named Saeed, LeT and JuD the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack.
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