By PTI
LAHORE: A woman arrested in connection with the blast outside Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed’s house here claimed that there was no plausible grounds to detain her, prompting a local court to issue notices to the Counter Terrorism Department and the Punjab government on Thursday seeking their reply within two weeks.
Three people were killed and over 20 injured in the blast outside Saeed’s Jauhar town residence on June 23 that also damaged a number of houses, shops and vehicles in the area.
The Punjab government claimed to have unearthed the network of all “10 Pakistani suspects” involved in the blast.
“However, the law enforcement agencies had arrested four suspects — Peter Paul David, Eid Gul, Ayesha Bibi and another person. The trial of the case is yet to begin,” an official source in Punjab Police told PTI.
Ayesha Bibi filed the post-arrest petition in the Lahore High Court with a plea that she was arrested by the CTD on the charge of being a “facilitator” of the alleged terrorists involved in the blast outside Saeed’s residence.
“I have no connection with the arrested terrorists. Police have no plausible grounds to arrest me,” she said in her petition.
Her counsel Advocate Fida Hussain told the court that she has no connection with the blast as she was not present in Jauhar town when the incident happened.
Pointing out that the investigation is complete and no recovery was made from her client, Hussain requested the court to grant Ayesha bail and assured that she will continue cooperating with the investigators.
Following the hearing of the petition, the court issued notices to the CTD and the Punjab government to file a reply within two weeks.
The source further said that the CTD failed to complete the challan of the case despite a passage of over five months.
“The trial of the case could not kick off because of an incomplete investigation,” he added.
Then Punjab Police chief Inam Ghani had said: “Explosive material was installed in the car that went off outside Saeed’s house. There was a police picket outside the high-value target’s house. The car could not cross the police picket.”
He had said the terrorist who planted explosives in the car and parked it near Saeed’s house belongs to Kyber Pakhtaunkhawa province but he speaks fluent Punjabi that helped him carry out the operation here.
He was identified as Eid Gul belonging to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) outfit.
“Hostile agencies can have the services of local (Pakistani) agents for terror acts easily against money. Money is given to local (Pakistani) agents in the Middle East,” Ghani had said, adding that the “key person” Peter Paul David whose car was used in the blast was arrested from Lahore.
Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) has been serving jail sentence at the Kot Lakhpat Jail Lahore for his conviction in terror financing cases.
The 71-year-old radical cleric and a UN-designated terrorist, whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty on, has been convicted for 36 years imprisonment in five terror financing cases.
His punishment is running concurrently.
Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
He was listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
The global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is instrumental in pushing Pakistan to take measures against terrorists roaming freely in the country and using its territory to carry out attacks in India.
