LAHORE, Pakistan, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Pakistan Tuesday released the founder of a jihadi group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network.
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the former leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Kashmiri jihad group, has been under arrest in Lahore since August, the Internet news site India Defense reported.
He was held under public order legislation that authorizes detention without trial for up to three months, but a court Tuesday ordered him freed.
"He has been released from detention," India Defense quoted one of Saeed's senior aides, Yahya Mujahid, as saying.
Saeed founded Lashkar-e-Taiba in the early 1990s but quit as leader after Indian authorities charged the group was behind a terror attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001.
Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Taiba -- which is said to have developed close links with the al-Qaida terror network during the 1990's -- in January 2002.
Indian police also believe the group was involved in the July 11 bombings on commuter trains in Mumbai that killed 186 people.
