Pakistan had jailed the head of the charity front Jamat-ud-dawa in December 2008, surrendering to the diktats of the once belligerent neighbour. Saeed had founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1989 to fight Indian rule in Kashmir before quitting and moving to more charitable activities. India bayed for his blood after the Mumbai terror attack in November 2008 that left 166 people dead. The 26/11 attacks have been marked by the utter failure of India's intelligence and investigation agencies. These officers are too busy pampering VIPs and VVIPs when they are not dancing to the tunes of their political masters. Naturally, they have lost their effectiveness and integrity in the process. To cover up their lapses, India accused cross-border terrorists of masterminding and executing the attack even before investigations started. That such a dastardly attack would have been impossible without a major role of local organisations with high-level contacts will be clear to anyone. But Indian courts never raised such uncomfortable questions before proceedings such as farcicial trials inside high security jails. In the mantime, New Delhi had the State chief minister and the Union home minister go out of view so that the inefficiency/involvement of 'respectable' dignitaries could be covered up. Even though Pakistan's politicos chose to appease the Indian rulers and put Saeed under house arrest, the Lahore High Court (LHC) found there was no substantial basis to rob him of his liberty.

A detention review board appointed by the Lahore High Court noted that the UN ban on him related only to travel and questioned the need for placing him under house arrest. The judges independently obtained separate evidence in the form of intelligence reports marshalled by Indian agencies. They hid more relevant information for shielding the lapses of powers-that-be than they revealed. The board ruled that the manner with which the freedom of Hafiz Saeed was usurped was against UN resolutions. Eventually, the LHC set him free in June. In light of the drubbing from the LHC, the government of Punjab filed a plea for withdrawal of the case in the Supreme Court. The Advocate General of Punjab, Raza Farooq said that the JuD chief was put under house arrest on directives from the Federal government, which had failed to provide solid grounds for house arrest. It was argued that victimising Saeed at the direction of India was only adversely affecting the charitable initiatives of JuD. When the government went to the Supreme Court, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary came down heavily on them: "Anything you want to do to any person under a particular law, you have to keep it within four corners of the law; because it concerns the individual liberties of the person, you have to construe the law strictly." Commenting on the refusal of Pak Chief Justice to sacrifice individual justice and bail out New Delhi from the untenable position it was caught in, the Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna said meekly: "I think whatever we have provided, according to our assessment, I think that is evidence enough to punish them and Saeed is one of those who is the main brains behind the attack."

He obviously does not realise that the bizarre obfuscations contained in a series of dossiers would not be acceptable to any self-respecting judge in any civilised country. They were good enough only to satisfy a pliable judiciary. Interestingly, Abhinav Bharat is also a non-governmental organisation that exists to serve the people and is sustained by voluntary contributions from willing benefactors. These NGOs are unlike the bloated government officialdom that gobbles up most of the money it forcibly fleeces from the masses in order to maintain itself and indulge in war mongering. The Indian judiciary is not too fussy about old-fashioned views like larger public interests and equality before law. Courts prefer to stay on the right side of the powers-that-be and in keeping judges' assets away from public domain. The stand of the Bhartiya Janta Party, which is fanatical about continuing the mindless killings of hundreds of jawans and civilians every month in Kashmir, is no different when it comes to peoples' liberty. BJP's existence, like the ruling coalition's, depends on the simmering tensions. The party used the plight of Sadhvi Pragya and Lt Col Prasad only to get votes.