DNA Edit: Smoke and mirrors - Hafiz Saeed’s arrest is aimed at conning the West

Pakistan has long mastered the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. For years, it kept Osama bin Laden hidden in a military compound in Abbottabad, only to give him up one fine night to American special forces.

If it meant a drastic loss of face for Pakistan’s armed forces and its spy agency ISI, so be it. Every move is dictated by political exigencies and rank opportunism, which makes Pakistan the most undependable ally in the world. So just when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is headed out to Washington next week with his all-powerful army chief in tow — and a begging bowl in hand — Islamabad has played another round of smoke and mirrors: it has arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed on the charge of collecting terror funds.

The so-called arrest of one of Pakistan Army’s main terror proxies is to show the Americans that the country is committed to battling extremism. US President Donald Trump, never the one to shun credit when it is not due, has claimed that it is his pressure that has got Mumbai terror mastermind arrested.

The reality, as India knows only too well, is that Pakistan can play such games with impunity and ease. Islamabad is also under the watch of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is keen to blacklist the country if it cannot stop terror financing. Hence the show of remorse.

On Thursday, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) correctly observed that Pakistan’s ‘arrest’ of Hafiz Saeed is old hat as he has been held eight times previously, but released on some ground or the other. Not surprisingly, he has never been formally charged. India has not lost track of this reality and hopefully, the Americans would understand it as well.