The Punjab Government on Monday issued a notification to extend the house arrest of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed for three more months.

The JuD chief had been placed under house arrest on January 31. Other members of the JuD — including Abdullah Ubaid, Abdul Rehman Abid, Zafar Iqbal and Qazi Kashif Niazi of Multan, who handles JuD’s publications — were also taken into protective custody.

"Hafiz Saeed's Johar Town residence is declared a sub-jail for a further 90 days," the notification issued by the Punjab Government, and seen by DawnNews, said.

"The [party] leaders will be placed under house arrest in the same places," the notification says, adding that Ubaid, Iqbal, Abid and Niazi will remaind under house arrest for another three months as well.

The JuD and the Falah-i-Insaaniat Founda­tion (FIF), a charity organisation affiliated with the JuD, have been included in the Second Schedule and were placed on the government’s watch list for six months under Section (1) 11EEE of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 in January.

The names of several JuD leaders had also been placed on the Exit Control List.

The United Nations Security Council had sanctioned the JuD, declaring it a terrorist organisation in December 2008. The US State Department in June 2014 had termed the JuD a “foreign terrorist organisation”, a status that freezes any assets it has under US jurisdiction.

The organisation has also been listed under the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, which is known as the Al Qaeda and Taliban sanctions committee.

The JuD chief had previously remained under house arrest for months during the Musharraf regime in 2002, after an attack on the Indian parliament, and once again after the Mumbai attack in 2008. The Lahore High Court had ordered his release in June 2009 after the government had failed to establish a case against him.

Hours before he was detained on Monday, Saeed had held a briefing for journalists and columnists on the Kashmir issue.

Responding to a query about a possible ban on the JuD, he said that he would move the court instead of setting up an alternative party.

The JuD chief had also announced plans to hold a march on Islamabad to pressure the government to review the Simla agreement at a joint session of the parliament and declare an unambiguous policy on Kashmir.