Hafiz Saeed responsible for unleashing terrorism against Pakistan's neighbours: India

With Pakistan finally putting Hafiz Saeed, the co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and the chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah under the Anti-Terrorism Act, India has asserted that effective action mandated internationally against him is the first step in ridding the region of the twin menaces of terrorism and violent extremism.

"Hafiz Saeed is an international terrorist, the mastermind of Mumbai terrorist attack and responsible for unleashing wave of terrorism against Pakistan's neighbours through LeT/ JuD and their affiliates. Effective action mandated internationally against him and his terrorist organisations and colleagues is a logical first step in bringing them to justice, and in ridding our region of the twin menaces of terrorism and violent extremism," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement.

 

The provincial government of Punjab in Pakistan has included names of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his four aides in the 'Fourth Schedule' of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) added their names to the list of the 1,450 'Fourth Schedulers' on an order of the federal Interior Ministry.

The men were identified by the Interior Ministry as "active members of the Jamaatud Dawa and Falah-i-Insaniyat". The ministry directed the CTD to "move and take necessary action" against them.

The names of three prisoners transferred to Pakistan from Guantanamo Bay had also been placed on the list, he said.

Saeed was placed under house arrest on January 30 and his name has also been put on the Exit Control List.

The Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 empowers the government to mark a person as "proscribed" and to place that person on the fourth schedule on an ex-parte basis.

According to Section 11EE of the ATA, the Fourth Schedule is to include "any person who is an activist, office-bearer or an associate of an organisation kept under observation or proscribed or affiliated with any group or organisation suspected to be involved in terrorism or sectarianism."

The person put under Fourth Schedule requires his movements to be restricted to any place or area specified in the order, and cannot reach places he is prevented from without prior permission to concerned police schools, colleges and other institutions where persons under 21 years of age or women are given education or other training or are housed permanently or temporarily.

Such persons also have restrictions to visit theatres, cinemas, fairs, amusement parks, hotels, clubs, restaurants, tea shops and other place of public entertainment or resort, airports, railway stations, bus stands, telephone exchanges, television stations, radio stations and other such places, public or private parks and gardens and public or private playing fields, and the scene of any public meeting or procession of any assemblage of the public, whether in an enclosed place or otherwise in connection with any public event festival or other celebrations.