Lahore: For the first time, Pakistan government has admitted that the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, blamed for the 26/11 attacks, has "prima facie" links with Al-Qaida, as it justified the detention of JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and another top leader after the terror strikes on Mumbai.
Submitting his arguments on Saeed -- also the founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba -- and Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed's petition against their detention, Attorney General Latif Khosa told the Lahore High Court that the government had received "evidence" that showed the JuD "prima facie has links with Al-Qaida."
Khosa said the government had "classified information" that would justify the detention of the JuD leaders.
On his request, the three-member bench, headed by Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, had a closed-door meeting with him where he apprised them of the classified information in this regard.
The court adjourned the hearing till Monday.
A K Dogar, counsel for Saeed and Nazir, protested against the in-camera briefing, saying that it was the right of his clients to know about the grounds of their detention. He said if the government had any "legal justification", it must be provided to them as well.
Responding to Dogar's statement, Khosa said the judicial review board had extended the detention period of the JuD leaders and also provided legal grounds in this respect.
Saeed and his closen aide Nazir were placed under house arrest on December 12 last year under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance.
The review board of the LHC has set free two other leaders of the JuD -- Amir Hamza and Mufti Abdur Rehman -- but extended the detention period of Saeed and Nazir for two months (May 9 to July 8) on the same grounds.
The United Nations Security Council had imposed a ban the JuD, the front organisation of Lasker-e-Toiba, after it was blamed for Mumbai attacks of November 26 last year.
Acting upon the UN's recommendations, the Pakistan government closed down the JuD's offices. Five activists and leaders of LeT, have already been arrested and a case against them which is in process at the Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi.