Pakistan releases leader of groups suspected in Mumbai attacks

NY Times:

A Pakistani court ordered the release Tuesday of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the leader of a banned Islamic group that was suspected of involvement in the terror attacks in Mumbai, India, last November.

The ruling drew a sharp response from India, which counts Mr. Saeed’s group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, among the alleged organizers of the Mumbai assault. More than 170 people died in the attacks.

It also places the United States in a sensitive position as it presses Pakistan to take action against a growing insurgency, while persuading India, an ally that has a bitter history with Pakistan, to support the American effort.

...

Mr. Saeed’s organization was put on a United Nations terrorism list after the attacks in Mumbai, and the Pakistani government ordered it shut, cut off its financing and placed monitors in an education facility that it had used for training.

Mr. Saeed is also the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group that started in the 1980s with the help of the Pakistani Army to fight India in a war in the disputed territory of Kashmir. The group was banned in 2002 and Jamaat-ud-Dawa emerged as a charitable organization that was believed to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The verdict was handed down on Tuesday morning in a crowded courtroom in Lahore. Dozens of Mr. Saeed’s associates chanted “God is great,” and cheered. Mr. Saeed’s lawyer, Abdullah Khan Dogar, joined in the applause. “The court has ordered to release Hafiz Saeed terming his detention unconstitutional,” Mr. Dogar said, adding that the judges ruled there was insufficient evidence to continue his detention.

Mr. Saeed was put under house arrest last December 12, after India accused Jamaat-ud-Dawa of planning and carrying out the Mumbai attacks.

The evidence, India said, was that Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen arrested during the attacks, was connected to the organization.

The detention of Mr. Saeed, and his aide, Col. Nazir Ahmed, was twice extended. Other aides were released by the court.

...
This is a bad move by Pakistan. If they don't think they have the right to hold him, they should turn him over to India for trial. The reason they won't do that is their religious bigotry toward the Indian government. The US and the UN should demand his extradition. At a time when Pakistan is desperate for aid to help with the refugees, you would think ther ewould be some leverage.

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