Who is Hafiz Saeed?
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is a Pakistani Islamist militant, who is a co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and the chief of Jama’at-ud-Da’wah, UN-designated terrorist organisations operating mainly from Pakistan. Saeed is an internationally designated terrorist even though he is influential in Pakistan amongst certain religious groups. India considers Saeed as one of its most wanted terrorists because of his ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba and his alleged involvement in attacks in India such as the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, 2006 Mumbai train bombings and the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.
Pakistan and Saeed
Pakistan has prohibited collection of donations by Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) as well as several such organisations named in a list of banned outfits by the UN Security Council. The decision was taken by Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the financial regulatory agency under the finance ministry, on December 19, sources said. It warned that non-compliance with the ruling could result in a heavy penalty. What seems to be a reaction to the rebuke by the US government on Pakistan’s attempts to work as the shelter, if not home, to the terrorists, Pakistan has further put Saeed on house arrest.
India and Saeed
The US State Department spokesperson stressed that Saeed’s name is on the United Nation’s list of designated terrorists, adding: “He is listed by the UN Security Council 1267, the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee for targeted sanctions due to his affiliation with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is a designated foreign terror organisation.” The Indian Ministry of External Affairs echoed US sentiments, saying, “If somebody is designated [a] global terrorist, it’s done based on [a] lot of evidence available in public domain.” “You can close your eyes, pretend nothing happened but they (Pakistan) have to realise what’s in front of them and take action against such people,” said Raveesh Kumar, the ministry’s spokesman.
“It was not the Modi government…but our own Pakistani government that had detained me for 10 months. The Pakistani government wanted to stop me from raising the Kashmir issue,” Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Saeed said while speaking at the Nazria Pakistan Trust here.
Earlier, he had blamed India and the US for his detention saying the Pakistani government had put him under house arrest under pressure from India and the US.