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If India puts the peace process on hold, it would do a greater service to the terror machinery than to peace. While Pakistan thinks any action against Hafiz Mohammad Saeed would be interpreted as a sellout to India, the latter feels it cannot be seen giving Pakistan the advantage by allowing it a leeway on Saeed. Will the alleged Mumbai attacks mastermind be allowed to become the sole determinant of India-Pakistan re-engagement?
Saeed embodies one of Pakistan’s greatest problems of the past decades: the effort to rein in homegrown terrorist groups that flourished under the army’s protection — or at least its blind eye.
Saeed embodies one of Pakistan’s greatest problems of the past decades: the effort to rein in homegrown terrorist groups that flourished under the army’s protection — or at least its blind eye.
On Friday, Saeed led Eid prayers in Lahore, hours after Jamat-ud-Dawah chief tweeted that "time is near when those oppressed in Kashmir, Palestine and Burma will celebrate Eid in the air of Freedom".
Delhi has been put on high alert following an alert from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) of a possible terrorist strike in the national capital ahead of Independence Day.
. Here are 10 hard facts about the
Mumbai terror attacks accused
Mumbai terror attacks accused
. 1) In February, The New York Times reported that Saeed lives openly in Pakistan. “I move about like an ordinary person - that's my style," Saeed told the Times in an interview at his home in Lahore. "My fate is in the hands of God, not America," he was quoted as saying by the influential US daily. At his Lahore compound -- a fortified house, office and mosque - Saeed is shielded not only by his supporters wielding Kalashnikovs outside his door, but also by the Pakistani state, the Times said.
However, the Bollywood badshah responded with firmness and sadness to “unsolicited advice” being offered to him from across the border.
. 3) At the Congress’s Jaipur conclave this year, Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had accused the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of conducting terror training camps and instigating “Hindu terrorism”. Saeed later tweeted: “World should take notice and declare India a state that is supporting terror on its soil after its HM Shinde candidly confessed. Shinde has spoken truth finally, we consider this a help from Allah SWT (Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) for Pakistan which is always alleged by India for terrorism.”
. 4) Saeed had been put under house arrest at various times, but in 2009 the Lahore High Court quashed all terrorism charges against him and set him free. On many Fridays, he delivers sermons to throngs of his followers about the imperialism of the United States, India and Israel. “Hafiz” is a title bestowed on those who have memorized the entire Koran.
His father was a farmer, Islamic teacher and respected village elder and his mother ran a religious school for children.
His father was a farmer, Islamic teacher and respected village elder and his mother ran a religious school for children.
. 5) In 2012, the alleged Mumbai attacks mastermind offered aid to Americans hit by superstorm Sandy. Saeed said his organisation, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, was prepared to send volunteers, medicine and food if allowed by the United States.
. 6) Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) — Army of the Pious — was founded in the early 1990s by Saeed, its spiritual chief, and other ideologues. The ISI deployed Lashkar as a proxy force against India, especially in the Kashmir region. Saeed formed LeT as the militant wing of Jamaat-ud-Dawa wal-Irshad, when many militant groups started to move from Afghanistan to Kashmir after the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan.
The US officially declared LeT a terror group in 2001. According to many intelligence reports, the ISI officials serve as handlers for Lashkar chiefs.
The US officially declared LeT a terror group in 2001. According to many intelligence reports, the ISI officials serve as handlers for Lashkar chiefs.
. 7) A former professor of Islamic studies, Saeed revived a much older organisation, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in 2002, when LeT was banned by the Pakistani government. The JuD is firmly opposed to any normalisation of ties with India. Abu Jundal’s arrest in 2012 revealed that a Pakistan-supported “control room” where LeT chief Saeed was present during the 26/11 attack. Jundal alias Abu Hamza alias Syed Zabiuddin Ansari, 30, is a native of Beed in Maharashtra but was allegedly trained in Pakistan.
. 8) In August 2006, Saeed was detained for activities which the Pakistani government at the time said were "detrimental" to its ties with other governments. But a court ordered his release the following December. Two years later he was again put under house arrest, this time following the Mumbai attacks.
. 9) According to documents recovered from Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbotabbad, when bin Laden discussed plans to assassinate US President Barack Obama, it was Iillyas Kashmiri, one LeT's key military leaders, and the LeT network he turned to.
. 10) In 2012, the US announced a $10 million (Rs 60 crore) reward for information leading to the capture of Saeed, blamed for the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. He appeared live on several television channels, deriding the American bounty as a “foolish step”.
