Islamic parties to hold protests against $10m bounty for Saeed

Islamabad: An influential grouping of Islamic parties yesterday said it would hold public protests across Pakistan tomorrow against the US announcement of a $10 million (Dh36.7 million) bounty for Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The Difa-e-Pakistan Council has asked the government to give a clear message to the US to stop "its interference" in the country's internal affairs, key leader of the organisation Maulana Samiul Haq said.

Saeed, reacting to Washington's move against him over the alleged involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, told local media that he would be in Lahore and US officials could contact him whenever they want.

"The bounty is always set on people who are in hiding… There is no case against me in any American court," Saeed said.

Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002 under US pressure but it operates with relative freedom under the name of its social welfare wing Jamaat-ud-Dawa — even doing charity work.

"America has gone blind in its enmity against Islam… After facing defeat in Afghanistan, it has resorted to such acts. This shows that the Difa-e-Pakistan Council has succeeded in its campaign," he said.

Samiul Haq said according to the law Saeed was ready to present himself before any court. "The Difa-e-Pakistan Council…condemns the US bounty, announces a country-wide protest on Friday."

Haq added that it was the government's responsibility to provide security to Saeed. "The US is trying to please India and Israel," Haq said.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malek said on television that the government was yet to be officially informed by the US about the bounty for Saeed.

Saeed came into the limelight originally as the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba in the 1990s, which focused on aiding the freedom struggle in Kashmir. After the militant group was banned in Pakistan, he assumed leadership of Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

Recently he has emerged as a main leader of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council, an alliance of about 40 right-wing parties and groups opposing the reopening of suspended Nato supply routes to Afghanistan.

The reasons cited in the US ‘Rewards for Justice' notification include an Interpol ‘red corner notice' issued by the Indian government against Saeed for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and the designation of the two groups founded by him as foreign terrorist organisations by the UN and US.

Saeed has been in the forefront of rallies held against the US and the reopening of Nato supply lines under the umbrella of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council.