Pakistan detains militant leader accused of Mumbai attack linkage: officials

Authorities in Pakistan have detained Hafiz Saeed, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa(JuD, the group accused of planning the 2008 attacks in the Indian commercial center of Mumbai that had killed 166 people, the groups spokesman said Tuesday.

Yahya Mujahid confirmed to Xinhua that the government placed Hafiz Saeed under arrest late Monday, shortly after he spoke to the media in the city of Lahore.

Mujahid also said that four other senior officials of the group have also been detained at different cities in Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital.

Police were deployed at the JuDs headquarters at Muridke, a town near Lahore, the spokesman said.

Hours before Saeed was placed under house arrest, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said in Islamabad the JuD has been under observation since 2010-11 after it was listed by the UN Security Councils Sanctions Committee.

We are bound to take some steps. We are taking those steps to fulfill our obligations, the minister told reporters.

The JuD leader was detained after the Interior Ministry issued the order under the provisions of an anti-terrorism law, officials said.

The United States had announced in 2012 a reward of 10 million US dollars on Hafiz Saeed for his alleged role in 2008 Mumbai attacks in which six American citizens were also killed. He had denied involvement of his group in the attack. Endit