ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed appeals filed by authorities challenging the release of JuD chief Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, blamed by India for masterminding the Mumbai attacks, from house arrest, reports PTI.

The appeals against the Lahore High Court’s order to release Saeed were filed by the federal and Punjab governments last year but could not be taken up earlier for various technical reasons.

When the matter came up for hearing today, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk dismissed the appeals. Further details were not immediately available.

Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), was put under house arrest in December 2008 in the wake of the Mumbai attacks after the UN Security Council declared the JuD a front for the LeT.

The JuD chief challenged his detention in the Lahore High Court. Saeed was freed on June 2 last year by a three-judge bench of the High Court that said that Punjab and federal governments had failed to provide sufficient evidence to keep him in custody.

Following pressure from India and the international community, the federal and Punjab governments challenged the high court’s ruling in the apex court.

Differences between the federal and Punjab governments and the change of certain legal officials of Punjab province held up the matter in the apex court.

Pakistani leaders like Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have contended that India has not provided any evidence that will allow authorities to act against Saeed.

Home minister P Chidambaram has maintained that India has provided sufficient evidence against Saeed in several dossiers handed over to Pakistani authorities.

MUMBAI: “You have been sentenced to death on four counts. You will be hanged by the neck till you are dead. Yeh hamara tareeka hai (This is our way),” judge M L Tahaliyani told Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab, bringing him to justice 17 months after he and his nine accomplices held Mumbai to a 60-hour siege and killed 166 innocent men, women and children, report agencies.

The mood in the courtroom was sombre. Kasab did not react. He kept his head down and was immediately whisked away after the pronouncement of the sentence. Throughout the afternoon, the baby-faced killer sat absolutely still in the box while the judge gave detailed reasons why it was necessary to give him the harshest possible penalty under the Indian law. “This man has lost the right to get any humanitarian relief,” Tahaliyani observed.

The court held that in view of the depravity of Kasab’s crimes, any chance of his reform or rehabilitation was “totally ruled out”. Describing the 22-year-old Lashkar-trained terrorist as “a menace to society”, Tahaliyani specifically alluded to the 1999 Kandahar case in 1999, when an Indian plane was hijacked to free dangerous terrorists who were imprisoned at the time. “Keeping him alive would be a constant danger to government and the state,” he said.

The judge made special mention of the merciless way in which people were killed at CST. “Brutality was writ large on Kasab’s face when he fired indiscriminately at people. It was visible in the photographs taken of him at CST,” he observed.

In a message to terrorist organisations which target India, the judge made it absolutely clear that “every man who wages war against India forfeits his life to the Indian state”. “Kasab voluntarily went to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and offered his services as a mujahideen,” he said.

Throughout the proceedings Kasab sat quietly, face nestled in his palm, and looking down at the ground. He spoke to a guard just once to ask for water. Before sentencing him, Judge Tahaliyani gave him one last chance to speak. He explained to him that his crimes warranted death, and he could tell the court if there was anything on his mind. Kasab, however, declined the privilege and slumped back on his bench slowly.

The judge reminded the defence lawyer that evidence showed that Kasab had several opportunities to leave the LeT training camp but was determined to stay on and attack India. “When the strike was delayed and the group was told to stay put in Karachi, Kasab was anxious about when he would get an opportunity to attack,” Tahaliyani said.

Describing the extreme terror Mumbai faced on 26/11, the judge referred to recordings of telephonic conversations between the gunmen holed up at various locations and their handlers sitting in Pakistan. “There was no remorse at the killing of so many people. The gunmen had come prepared to die,” he said.

The Supreme Court has said that while sentencing a man to death, the judge must prepare a balance sheet of mitigating and aggravating circumstances. In Kasab’s case, Tahaliyani said he could not find a single mitigating factor. “Everything is in favour of the prosecution,” he said, declaring that the death penalty was the only option.  — Courtsey The Times Of India