A Pakistani court Monday admitted a petition filed by Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed challenging two cases registered against him under the Anti-Terrorism Act for inciting people to wage jehad.

Saeed said in his petition that his release on the orders of the Lahore High Court had caused an “uproar in India”, which pressured the Pakistan government to take action against him. A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court later issued notices to the federal and Punjab governments and police officials in connection with the two FIR’s registered against Saeed in Faisalabad. The bench set October 12 as the date for the hearing of the petition.

Punjab Police had recently filed two FIRs against Saeed for making speeches in which he allegedly asked people to wage jehad or holy war against infidels and sought funds for his banned group.

Talking to reporters outside the Lahore High Court, Saeed’s counsel A K Dogar said the JuD’s chief call for jehad was not illegal as it is obligatory according to the Quran and said speeches made by him in Faisalabad last month “did not attract the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act”.

Dogar claimed that JuD was not a banned group and restrictions imposed on it by the UN Security Council did “not apply in a sovereign country like Pakistan”. He also said that India was wrongly accusing Saeed of involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

Saeed, who is also founder of the banned Lashker-e-Toiba, was placed under house arrest in December last year after the UN Security Council declared Jamaat-ud-Dawah a terrorist group. He was freed in June on the orders of the Lahore High Court.