Anti-terrorism court grants pre-arrest bail to Hafiz Saeed

Lahore, July 15: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday granted pre-arrest bail to proscribed religious outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Chief Hafiz Saeed and three others in a case pertaining to organisation's purported illegal use of land for its seminary.

The court has granted interim bail to the accused, including Hafiz Saeed, Hafiz Masood, Ameer Hamza, and Malik Zafar, until Aug 31 against surety bonds of Rs50,000 each.

According to the Pakistan Today report, during the hearing, the defense counsel said that the organisation was "not using any piece of land illegally" and urged the court to accept bail pleas.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court (LHC), while hearing a petition filed by JuD Chief Saeed and his seven aides challenging a case carrying the charge of terror financing lodged by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), issued notices to the federal government, the Punjab government and CTD.

The two-member bench of the LHC, comprising Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Mohammad Waheed Khan, asked the parties to submit their respective responses within two weeks.

Prior to this, the CTD on July 3 booked Hafiz Saeed and others in cases of terror financing.

In a statement, the CTD spokesperson said that "cases have been registered against them in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan for collecting funds for terrorism through assets/properties held as trusts and non-profit organisations, including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawa'at-ul-Irshad trust and Muaz Bin Jabal Trust".

The spokesperson further said that large-scale investigations have been launched into the financing of proscribed organisations, including Jamat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba in connection with the implementation of United Nations (UN) sanctions against these designated entities and persons as directed by National Security Committee (NSC) in its meeting on January 1, 2019 which was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan for implementing the National Action Plan (NAP).