The Lahore High Court on Tuesday said that the house arrest of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed would be set aside if the Pakistan government does not submit evidence against him,Dawn reported.

“No citizen can be detained for an extended period on the basis of merely press clippings,” the court said, reacting to the absence of an Interior Ministry official during the hearing of a plea against the detention of Saeed and his four aides. The official was expected to present records related to the case.

“The conduct of the government shows it has no substantial evidence against the petitioners,” said the court. The detention of the petitioners will be set aside if no concrete evidence is presented before the court.”

On January 31, the JuD chief was placed under house arrest for 90 days, after which his detention was extended for another three months. It was again extended for two months in August. Investigative agencies had said Saeed was the mastermind behind the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, in which over 160 people had died.