Intelligence

Former LT chief placed under house arrest

Alternative & Independent Source of Indian Subcontinent News

LAHORE, Aug. 14, 2006: Authorities have placed under house arrest the former head of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) which Indian police suspect had a role in the Mumbai train bombings, officials said on Thursday.
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, was being held in Lahore for a one-month period, a Punjab home department official said. "Hafiz Saeed has been detained to maintain law and order," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Saeed abandoned Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2001 - a day before it was banned by President Pervez Musharraf - and set up a charity called Jamaat-ud-Dawa and regarded as its political wing. Jamaat-ud-Dawa spokesman Yahya Mujahid said the detention order was served by a provincial official late on Wednesday, ahead of a public meeting Dawa had planned to mark Independence Day.

The authorities have also withdrawn permission granted earlier to stage the rally on Saturday in Lahore, Mujahid said. Police have been posted outside Saeed's house in Johar Town and the building has been declared a "sub-jail" which he is forbidden from leaving, Mujahid said. "We will challenge the detention orders in a court of law if they are not withdrawn," he said.

August 14, 2006 at 03:44 PM in Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home