Pak court frees Lashkar chief Saeed

The Lahore High Court, to India’s frustration, freed Saeed in June due to lack of evidence against him. Pakistan has appealed against Saeed's release, but ministers have said India should furnish better evidence against him.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court adjourned an appeal hearing on Monday to decide whether to re-arrest the founder of a militant group said to have been behind the attacks on Mumbai last November.

Hafiz Saeed, who headed Lashkar-e-Tayyeba before moving to its charity front, was detained after the Mumbai attacks after a UN Security Council resolution put him on a list of people and organisations supporting Al-Qaeda.

The Lahore High Court, to India’s frustration, freed Saeed in June due to a lack of evidence against him. Pakistan has appealed against Saeed's release, but ministers have said India should furnish better evidence against him.

Dawn quoted Hafiz Saeed's counsel A.K. Dogar as saying that the hearing of two petitions filed by the Federal and Punjab governments had been adjourned indefinitely by the apex court. The move was apparently linked to the resignation of Punjab's Advocate General Raza Farooq, who was representing the provincial government in the hearings, the report

said.

On Saturday, India gave Pakistan a new dossier of evidence to investigate the Mumbai attacks and to prosecute Saeed.

“I think whatever we have provided, according to our assessment, I think that is evidence enough to punish them and Saeed is one of those who is the main brains behind the attack,” Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said in New Delhi on Monday.

Charges have still to be read against the suspects, and the next hearing has been put off until Aug. 29. Saeed’s lawyer, A.K. Dogar, said the court adjourned the hearing without fixing a new date because the government's prosecutor was not prepared for the case.