Pak court grants pre-arrest bail to Hafiz Saeed in illegal land use case

A Pakistan anti-terrorism court here on Monday granted pre-arrest bail to 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed in a case of illegal use of land for a seminary.

The court granted interim bail to Saeed and three others accused until August 31 against surety bonds of Pak Rs 50,000 each, Dawn reported.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court issued notices to the federal government, the Punjab government and the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab province on a petition filed by Saeed and seven of his aides in terror financing cases.

Early this month, the CTD had registered cases pertaining to terror financing and facilitation against Saeed, a United Nations-proscribed terrorist, and his aides.

In response, Saeed, the chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and the others had on Friday filed the plea in the high court challenging the cases.

A bench comprising Justices Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Mohammad Waheed Khan asked the parties to submits their replies within two weeks.

India has called Pakistan's action of charging Saeed "cosmetic".

"Pakistan's sincerity to take action against terrorists and terror groups will be judged on the basis of their ability to demonstrate verifiable, credible and irreversible action against terror groups operating from their soil and not on the basis of half-hearted measures which they undertake sometimes to hoodwink the international community," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said in a statement on July 4.