The US announcement of a $10 million bounty on Hafiz Mohammad Saeed — founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba — blamed for the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai vindicates India’s stand.
The US announcement of a $10 million bounty on Hafiz Mohammad Saeed — founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba — blamed for the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai vindicates India’s stand.
The announcement should prompt Pakistan to act against Saeed, P Chidambaram, Union home minister, said in a suo motu statement on Tuesday.
Wendy Sherman, US Undersecretary of State in India, announced the reward on Monday. It has also been posted on the website of the US government's Rewards for Justice.
“India has continuously taken the position that Saeed masterminded the Mumbai terror attacks,” Chidambaram said. “When I visited Pakistan I handed over a dossier on Saeed. We had sought his voice samples. We wanted to interrogate him but Pakistan was in denial and it still is in denial.”
The money offered for information leading to Saeed’s arrest and conviction is the same as the sum offered by the US for the Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar. Only al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri commands a larger bounty - $25 million.
Saeed — head of the banned charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, seen as a front for LeT — lives openly in Pakistan. He addressed thousands of people at a rally in Islamabad on March 27 urging Pakistan not to reopen its Afghan border to NATO and US supply convoys.
It is easy to bring Saeed to justice because there is enough evidence against him and both the countries have inherited the same laws and penal code, Chidambaram said. He, however, said the government would not broach the subject when Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari visits India on April 8 because it is his “personal visit to a religious place”.
Speaking to various news agencies on the phone, Saeed lashed out at the US. “I think the US is frustrated because we are taking out countrywide protests against the resumption of NATO supplies and drone strikes,” he said. “They (the US and India) want to see me hiding in the mountains but I will not fulfil their desire. I believe either the US has very little knowledge and is basing its decisions on wrong information being provided by India or they [US government] are just frustrated.”
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