August 10, 2006: New York Times
Pakistan Puts Leader of Militant Group Under House Arrest
By SALMAN MASOOD
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 10 — Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Laskhar-e-Taiba,the militant Islamic group that India accuses of sending hundreds of Pakistanis to fight in Kashmir, was put under house arrest by Pakistani authorities today.
India has repeatedly blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Pure, for violence, and specifically for an attack on the Indian Parliament building in New Delhi that renewed the longstanding tensions between the two nations.
Indian officials have also said they suspect that there are ties between the group and the plotters of the July 11 bomb attacks on Mumbai trains. More than 180 people died in the coordinated blasts, which have damaged the efforts at peace negotiations between the two nations, both of which have nuclear arms.
Mr. Saeed, who currently leads a charity group called Jamaat-ud-Dawa, or Party of Preaching, was put under house arrest for a month by police officers who arrived at his home in the eastern city of Lahore in the early hours of today, a spokesman for the group, Yaha Mujahid, said.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa was formed after Pakistan declared Lakshar-e-Taiba a terrorist group and banned it.
Mr. Mujahid said that Mr. Saeed was accused of violating an ordinance that prohibits speech that “causes or is likely to cause fear or alarm to the public” or that “furthers or is likely to further any activity prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order.”
Lahore officials withdrew permission this week for Jamaat-ud-Dawa to hold a rally in Lahore on Aug. 12.
Mr. Saeed, who is in his 60’s, has been put under house arrest several times in the past and was arrested twice in 2002. He is a retired professor of Islamic studies at an engineering university in Lahore.
He fought against the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980’s and in 1989 founded Lashkar-e-Taiba, which became known for its daring attacks against the Indian military in the disputed Kashmir region, claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan.
The United States declared Lashkar-e-Taiba a terrorist group in 2001. A year later it was banned by President Pervez Musharraf, along with four other Islamic militant groups. It re-emerged under the name of Jamaat-ud-Dawa in Pakistan in mid 2002 and publicly retracted any association with Lashkar-e-Taiba.
After the earthquake last October in Pakistan, Jamaat-ud-Dawa won praise for its efforts to help the victims.
‘Lashkar-e-Taiba is operating in Indian-held Kashmir,’’ Mr. Muhajid. “We have no connection with it.’’
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