ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities have put the founder and former head of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group under house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore, a spokesman for the Islamic charity he now runs said on Thursday. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed resigned almost five years ago from Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group suspected of involvement in the Indian rail blasts of July 11 that killed over 180 people, to become head of a charity called Jamaat-ud-Dawa, regarded as its sister organisation. The United States has designated both as terrorist organisations.“They informed us last night that Hafiz could not leave his residence and this restriction is for one month,” Yahya Mujahid, Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s spokesman told Reuters. He said police had been stationed at Saeed’s residence and police had also cancelled permission for Jamaat-ud-Dawa to hold a rally in Lahore on August 12. Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told Reuters authorities detained Saeed, fearing his activities could create a law and order situation. “He was put under house arrest under the Maintainance of Public Order,” Sherpao said, referring to a law under which authorities can detain a person upto 90 days.
After joining a US-led global war on terrorism following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Pakistan put the leaders of several militant organisations under house arrest. Saeed has been put under house arrest several times before but was released later. The dreaded "Stay at Home and Release" program.
Pakistan’s reluctance to act more strongly against these groups probably stems from the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency’s history of support for their activities, according to analysts. India has called for Pakistan to act more forcefully to shut down militant groups in the wake of the Mumbai blasts, and New Delhi’s suspicions of Pakistani links to the attacks have jeopardised a 2 “year-old peace process.
There was no immediate official reaction from India, but foreign ministry officials in New Delhi expressed a mixture of surprise and scepticism. “Pakistan is probably trying to give the impression that they are doing something about these groups. Such house arrests have taken place in the past as well and these leaders end up living in luxury,” one official, who requested anonymity, said. Lashkar-e-Taiba was one of the groups implicated in December 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, which brought the two countries to the brink of their fourth war.
The group was banned by Pakistan, and its members say it only operates out of Indian Kashmir these days, although members of Lashkar have been arrested in the United States. Jamaat-ud-Dawa was added to a US State Department terrorist list earlier this year. Pakistan has put it on a watchlist but has not banned it. In a report issued last year, the State Department said Lashkar used the charity to gather funds and maintain ties with religious militant groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya.
Jamaat ud-Dawa has been prominent in providing relief after an earthquake killed over 73,000 people and left around three million destitute in Kashmir and northwest Pakistan in October.