ISLAMABAD, May 25 The Supreme Court upheld on Tuesday a Lahore High Court order of releasing from preventive detention Jamaatud Dawa leader Hafiz Mohammad Saeed who has been accused of masterminding the Mumbai attacks.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk dismissed appeals filed by the federal and Punjab governments citing their failure to produce incriminating evidence against Hafiz Saeed.

“We do appreciate that the world has changed after the event of 9/11 and that people are being detained at Bagram prison in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba or Poland, but there is a burden on us that we could not allow detention on speculations since our Constitution guarantees certain rights to people like liberty and access to fair trial,” observed Justice Jawad S. Khwaja, a member of the bench.

“Should we throw out all rights merely because someone in the Punjab secretariat is saying differently?” the judge asked.

Justice Nasirul Mulk observed that Hafiz Saeed was not a convicted person and not under detention, but had been in preventive custody since Dec 12, 2008.

The bench noted that no evidence had been provided to prove that Hafiz Saeed was involved in the Mumbai attacks or that he had links with Al Qaeda.

Hafiz Saeed was arrested under the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public

Order (MPO) Ordinance of 1961 and JuD offices were closed by the government a day after the organisation had been declared a terrorist group by the United Nations.

He was released on June 2 last year by the LHC which observed that there was no sufficient ground to detain and link Hafiz Saeed to the Mumbai attacks.

In their appeals, the federal and Punjab governments had requested the Supreme Court to restore the JuD leader's detention order which was based on material and classified information furnished by functionaries of the state.

Moreover, they said, Hafiz Saeed's detention had been extended to 60 days on the orders of a review board comprising three judges of the superior court.

The high court, they argued, had not considered sensitivity of the matter, especially the situation emerging from the country's fight against internal and external terrorism.

Advocate A.K. Dogar, the counsel for Hafiz Saeed, said his client was a peaceful citizen and was overseeing a welfare organisation which ran 180 schools, 52 madressahs and four universities across the country.

“Are we going to be condemned because of our beard?” he asked.