Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed has been listed under Pakistan's anti-terrorism act by the provincial Punjab government, in a move signaling tacit acknowledgement of his links to militancy.
It was reported that Punjab government has included names of Saeed and one of his close aides, Qazi Kashif, in the fourth schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Three other men were also added to the list – Abdullah Obaid from Faisalabad, and Zafar Iqbal and Abdur Rehman Abid from the Markaz-i-Taiba, Muridke.
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. The mere listing of a person in the fourth schedule of the ATA shows that he is linked with militancy in some way, the report said. Any violation of provision of the fourth schedule may result in imprisonment of up to three years and fine or both.
Saeed and the four men added to the fourth schedule of the ATA were also placed under house arrest on 30 January 2017 in Lahore amid an angry uproar from his party and political allies.
The five men were identified by the Interior Ministry as "active members of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i- Insaniyat (FIF)," the report said. The Ministry directed the Counter Terrorism Department to "move and take necessary action" against them.
The names of Saeed and 37 other JuD and FIF leaders had earlier also been placed on the Exit Control List (ECL), barring them from leaving the country. The action against Saeed was taken after the country was hit by at least eight terror attacks which killed more than 100 people.
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