Islamabad: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday ordered the release of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, who has been under house arrest since January this year.Saeed is scheduled to be released on Thursday.
Pakistan's Punjab government had asked for an extension to the detention of the head of the banned Jamaatud Dawa, but the request was turned down by the court.
The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack.
The US has offered a 10 million dollar bounty for information leading to Saeed's arrest and conviction.
Saeed's lawyer said the High Court's Review Board asked the Punjab government to produce evidence for keeping him detained but the government failed.
"Review board has not found any satisfactory evidence for Hafiz Saeed so it has instructed the government to release him henceforth," local media quoted AK Dogar, the lawyer, as saying.
The Board had last month extended the detention of Saeed by a month. His detention was to end on November 23, three days before the ninth anniversary of the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.On Tuesday, the Punjab government had produced Saeed before the Review Board comprising judges of theHigh Court seeking the extension of his detention by three months. Saeed's four aides were set free last month.
(UNI)
