Lahore: Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and his three aides were granted pre-arrest bail on Monday by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan, which stopped police from arresting them till August 3 in a land grabbing case for a seminary. Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), Lahore, Judge Javed Iqbal Warriach granted pre-arrest bail to Saeed and his three aides - Hafiz Masood, Ameer Hamza, and Malik Zafar - until August 3 against the surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each. Earlier, Dawn newspaper reported that the ATC granted interim bail to the JuD leaders until August 31. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had registered an FIR against Saeed and others for illegally grabbing a piece of land in Lahore and setting up a seminary.

Saeed and other three's counsel Imran Fazal told the court that his clients were not involved in grabbing of the land in question. He termed the allegation baseless. A lawyer representing the CTD said Saeed and his three aides are involved in land grabbing. "They grabbed the land and set up a seminary there," he said. Judge Warriach, however, stopped the CTD of Punjab police from arresting Saeed and his three aides in this case till August 3. According to officials, JuD's network includes 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance service. In March, Punjab police said that government seized control of 160 seminaries, 32 schools, two colleges, four hospitals, 178 ambulances and 153 dispensaries associated with the JuD and its charity wing the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) in province.