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The Pakistan government may release the leaders of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the two outfits active in Jammu and Kashmir, as no serious charges have been levelled against them.
The government has already freed fundamentalists like Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman as a reconciliatory gesture to stem the tide of backlash for its decision to crack down on militant groups, a Pakistani daily said
The two leaders were detained last year at the height of America's war in Afghanistan, as they had attempted to organise pro-Taliban rallies all over the country.
The March 17 attack on a church in Islamabad, in which five persons including two Americans were killed, was seen as a move by banned militant groups to strike back at the government, the News said.
The abduction and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl had also unnerved the government, it said.
"While waving a white flag to the religio-political groups, it seemed, that the government has also extended olive branch to the jihadi organisations," the daily said.
A senior Punjab police official said that Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar and the former leader of the Lashkar-e-Toiba Hafiz Mohammed Saeed could be released, it added.
"In the absence of any serious charges, Maulana Masood and Hafiz Saeed can be released any day," it quoted the official as saying.
PTI
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