Pakistan frees militant group leader

An Indian security guard patrols outside the Indian Parliament on the 1st anniversary of the suicide raid on Friday

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have released the head of radical Kashmiri militant group Jaish-e Mohammed, a movement India blames on a string of deadly attacks.

Maulana Masood Azhar was released by a court order, after spending the past year without receiving a trial, instead alternating between jail and house arrest.

Jaish-e Mohammed is one of two groups fighting for independence in Indian-controlled Kashmir that were blamed by the Indian government for an attack on the Indian parliament last December that left 14 people dead.

A month after the attack, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf banned the group and ordered a crackdown on its members and seizure of its bank accounts.

Also banned were Lashkar-e Taiba, the other group New Delhi blames for the parliament raid.

The founder of Lashkar-e Taiba was released last month after six months of similar detention to Azhar.

Both groups were designated as terrorist groups by the United States last year.

Azhar set up Jaish-e Mohammed after he was released by India in December 1999 in exchange for passengers on an Indian airliner hijacked from Nepal to Afghanistan.

Jaish-e Mohammed was also blamed for an attack in October 2001 on the state assembly in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, which killed 38 people.

That attack, combined with the raid on parliament in New Delhi as well as continued bloodshed in Kashmir, brought Pakistan and India to the brink of war earlier this year.

The disputed Himalayan region, divided for over 50 years, has been at the core of two of the three wars fought by the now nuclear-capable neighbors.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in a 13-year separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir.

New Delhi accuses Pakistan of funding and training militants in Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it only provides moral and political support for self-determination in Kashmir.

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