Lahore: Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and his three aides were granted pre-arrest bail Monday by the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) here, which stopped police from arresting them till August 3 in a land grabbing case for a seminary. The three others who got bail are Hafiz Masood, Ameer Hamza, and Malik Zafar. All four had to furnish surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each.
Earlier ‘Dawn’ newspaper had reported that the ATC had granted interim bail to the JuD leaders including Hafiz Saeed until August 31.
The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had registered an FIR against Saeed and others for illegally grabbing a piece of land here and setting up a seminary. Hafiz Saeed and the other three’s counsel Imran Fazal told the court that his clients were not involved in grabbing of the land in question. He termed the allegation baseless.
A lawyer representing the CTD said Saeed and his three aides are involved in land grabbing. “They grabbed the land and set up a seminary there,” the lawyer asserted.
Judge Warriach, however, stopped the CTD of Punjab police from arresting Saeed and his three aides in this case till August 3.
According to officials, JuD’s network includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance service.
In March, Punjab Police said that government seized control of 160 seminaries, 32 schools, two colleges, four hospitals, 178 ambulances and 153 dispensaries associated with the JuD and its charity wing the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) in province.
In a related development, the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued notices to the federal government, the Punjab government and the CTD on Saeed and his seven aides’ petition challenging terror financing charges against them and sought a reply from the respondents till July 30.
PTI