LeT chief's house arrest extended for 60 days

Lahore: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday extended by 60 days the house arrest of Hafeez Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group that India has blamed for the 26/11 Mumbai terror carnage.

A three-judge review board of the Lahore High Court ordered the continued detention for 60 more days of Saeed's associate Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed but ordered the release of two others.

"The detention of Hafiz Saeed and retired colonel Nazir Ahmed has been extended for two months," court registrar Tahir Pervez told reporters.

"However, the review board ended the detention of Mufti Abdul Rehman and Amir Hamza and ordered their release," Pervez added.

The review board also recommended that Saeed's plea against his detention be heard by a larger bench of the Lahore High Court.

Saeed was detained last December after the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a frontal organisation of the LeT, as a terrorist group.

Saeed was originally detained for one month and this has been successively extended.

After UN action, the authorities arrested some 40 JuD members and closed dozens of its offices and relief units in the country.

India had in January handed over a dossier to Pakistan linking the LeT and some Pakistani nationals to the Nov 26-29, 2008, Mumbai carnage that claimed the lives of over 170 people, including 26 foreigners.

In February, Pakistan admitted that part of the Mumbai conspiracy was planned in this country and also submitted a list of 30 questions on the Indian dossier of the evidence on Mumbai attack.

India replied to this in March.

Meanwhile, the trial has begun in Mumbai of Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman caught alive and arrested during the Mumbai carnage and who has admitted to being a Pakistani national and to be being trained by the LeT for the terror strike on India's financial capital.

Also in December 2008, Pakistani authorities arrested LeT commander Zakiur Rehman after India handed over to the FBI intercepts of telephone conversations between him and the Mumbai attackers.

The FBI concluded that the intercepts were genuine and that Lakhvi was the handler of the Mumbai attackers.

Four of Lakhvi's associates - Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hammad Amin Saddiq and Shahid Jameel Riaz - have been jailed.