Claiming that he was neither a threat nor has his unit ever engaged in any terrorist activities, the Jamaat-ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed asked the Pakistan government to take out his name immediately from a list that stops him from leaving the country.
“A memorandum issued on January 30, 2017 placing 38 individuals should be withdrawn forthwith,” writes the mastermind of 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack in a letter to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. The incident had killed about 166 people.
Last month, the government put Saeed and 37 other leaders of JuD and his Falah-e-Insaniyat charity on Exit Control List. Saeed and 4 other members of the organisation were also put under “house arrest” for 90 days. Moreover, the interior ministry put JuD and FIF on a “watch-list” for next six months.
However, Saeed, who is disappointed with the decisions said, “The JuD has never been involved in any terrorist activity in Pakistan and no incident of any terrorism or destruction of property was ever alleged against the organization.” He further argued that no substance has ever been produced by federal or provincial governments against him in a court of law.
He also quoted an observation of the Lahore High Court in a 2009 case against him wherein the court had said, “In the present case the government is not in possession of any evidence that the petitioners are risk to the security of Pakistan and merely on the basis of the UN Resolution their liberty cannot be curtailed.”
