Pakistan’s Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir on Wednesday said a First Information Report would be filed against Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. The 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind has been under house arrest since Monday. The minister said the details about the FIR and the related cases would be made available “in a few days”.
“Action against Saeed has been taken after taking all institutions on board. The government has put Saeed under house arrest for the time being, but an FIR will be registered against him,” Dastgir told PTI. Punjab Province Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said JuD and Falaha-e-Insanyat had been put on the government watch list and more people associated with the organisations would be detained soon. “We are watching the activities of the suspected workers of the JuD and FeF and more activists will be detained under Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act,” he said.
Sanaullah said the Nawaz Sharif government’s Kashmir policy had nothing to do with that of the Saeed outfit. “We will not compromise on national interest. Our policy on Kashmir is different from that of the JuD,” he said. The Pakistani government also placed Saeed’s name on the its Exit Control List. The country’s Interior Ministry has sent a list of 38 names including Saeed’s to all provincial governments to prevent them from leaving the country.
Saeed has received support from several political parties in the country, who held that the action against him was triggered by pressure from India and the United States. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Mahmoodur Rasheed said Saeed was being punished for raising his voice for the rights of Kashmiris. “Action against Saeed shows that the government has succumbed to Indian pressure,” said the senior leader of the Imran Khan-led party.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader and member of the Punjab Assembly Wasim Akhtar demanded Saeed’s immediate release. He said the JuD chief was responsible for brining the Kashmir issue to the fore, which triggered a lot of social work in the region. Defence Council Pakistan Chairperson Maulana Samiul Haq said Saeed’s house arrest was aimed at “pleasing India”. He also said the Defence Council Pakistan would launch nation-wide protests if Saeed was not released immediately.
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 Lashkar-e-Taiba militant organisation. India had named Saeed, LeT and JuD the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack.
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