Pakistan court orders Islamist blamed for 2008 Mumbai attacks to be freed from house arrest

ARIF ALI | AFP | Getty Images

Pakistan head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) organisation Hafiz Saeed waves to supporters as he leaves a court in Lahore on November 21, 2017.

A Pakistani court on Wednesday ordered an end to the house arrest of Hafiz Saeed, accused by the United States and India of masterminding the 2008 attacks on the Indian financial hub of Mumbai that killed 166 people, a public prosecutor said.

Saeed was put under house arrest in January after years of living freely in Pakistan, one of the sore points in the country’s fraying relationship with the United States.

His freedom had also infuriated Pakistan’s arch foe, India.

The provincial government of Pakistan’s eastern province of Punjab had asked for an extension to Saeed’s detention but the request was turned down by the court, prosecutor Sattar Sahil told Reuters.

Saeed is scheduled to be released on Thursday.