The 26/11 Mumbai attack was a "classic trans-border terrorist event", a former high-ranking official from Islamabad said Monday, amid tensions between nuclear-armed neighbours Pakistan and India over terrorism-related incidents.
Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former national security adviser who was a speaker at the 19th Asian Security Conference in Delhi, said Hafiz Saeed has "no utility for Pakistan and strong action must be taken" against him, reported India's NDTV news on Monday.
The Mumbai attacks in 2008 brought Pakistan and India to the brink of war after 10 gunmen killed commuters, foreigners and some of India's wealthy elite in a rampage that included attacks on two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and a train station.
India accused Pakistan of sponsoring the attack through Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which Saeed founded in the 1990s. Pakistan has denied any state involvement and Saeed - who has distanced himself from LeT - has said repeatedly he was not responsible.
Saeed was placed under house arrest just after the Mumbai attacks but was released six months later when a court ruled there was insufficient evidence against him. He was again detained in January this year and has since been under house arrest.
An interior ministry source had confirmed Saeed and four other men "are under house arrest" and on the Exit Control List, meaning they could not leave the country.
The Punjab government said Saeed and the other men were in "protective custody" because they violated a UN Security Council resolution passed after the Mumbai attacks.
In recent months, Saeed has been holding regular press conferences about the security crackdown in Indian-held Kashmir, trying to highlight alleged civil rights violations against the mainly Muslim population there.