JuD chief Hafiz Saeed placed under house arrest

LAHORE: Government has placed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed under house arrest, ARY News reported on Monday.

“A large police team arrived (at JuD headquarters) and told us that Hafiz would be placed under house arrest,” Nadeem Awan, Secretary of Information for JuD, told Reuters.

Awan said the police told them they had an arrest warrant for Saeed and five others at JuD headquarters in Lahore.

According to ARY News Islamabad correspondent, Hafiz Saeed’s house has been declared a sub-jail while JuD and its charity wing Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) has been added to interior ministry’s watch-list for six months and a notification has been issued in this regard.

“Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdullah Ubaid, Zafar Iqbal, Abdur Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Niaz are reportedly active members of the aforementioned organizations within the meaning of Section 11EEE(1) of the ATA 1997 (as amended). As such, they must be placed under preventive detention.” reads the notification issued by interior ministry.

‘Everything will be clear by tomorrow’

Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan earlier said that the JuD was declared a terrorist group by United Nations (UN) and is under government’s observation since 2011.

“A state has to take some measures after a group (within the state) is termed a terror group, the steps were not taken in the past but we are doing it now, everything will be clear by tomorrow,” said Nisar.