Pak court grants bail to 11 JuD activists

A Pakistani court has granted bail to 11 Jamaat-ud-Dawah activists who had been arrested after the United Nations Security Council declared the group a front for the outlawed Lashker-e-Taiba in December 2008.

The bail was granted to the JuD activists by a division bench of the Lahore high court headed by Chief Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif on Wednesday.

Deputy Prosecutor General Chaudhry Jamshed opposed the bail arguing that the JuD was a banned organisation. He told the court that the JuD activists had continued collecting funds, distributing religious literature and other activities despite the ban imposed by the federal government last year.

Irshadullah Chatha, the counsel for the JuD activists, contended that there was no formal notification regarding the ban on the organisation and that no organisation could be banned until a notification was issued.

Chatha also quoted an earlier case related to JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, where he said the federal government too had admitted in the Lahore high court that there was no substantial evidence against the organisation.

The JuD activists who were freed on bail include Abdul Shakoor, Muhammad Hanif, Muhammad Siddiq, Abbas Dogar, Saeed Amir, Arif Ali, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Iqbal, Master Abdul Shakoor and Muhammad Anwar. They had been arrested from Bahawalnagar in Punjab province under the Anti-Terrorism Act.