LAHORE, Pakistan — Ten million dollars does not seem to buy much in this bustling Pakistani city. That is the sum the United States is offering for help in convicting Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, perhaps the country’s best-known jihadi leader. Yet Mr. Saeed lives an open, and apparently fearless, life in a middle-class neighborhood here.
“I move about like an ordinary person — that’s my style,” said Mr. Saeed, a burly 64-year-old, reclining on a bolster as he ate a chicken supper. “My fate is in the hands of God, not America.”
Mr. Saeed is the founder, and is still widely believed to be the true leader, of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the militant group that carried out the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, in which more than 160 people, including six Americans, were killed. The United Nations has placed him on a terrorist list and imposed sanctions on his group. But few believe he will face trial any time soon in a country that maintains a perilous ambiguity toward jihadi militancy, casting a benign eye on some groups, even as it battles others that attack the state.
Mr. Saeed’s very public life seems more than just an act of mocking defiance against the Obama administration and its bounty, analysts say. As American troops prepare to leave Afghanistan next door, Lashkar is at a crossroads, and its fighters’ next move — whether to focus on fighting the West, disarm and enter the political process, or return to battle in Kashmir — will depend largely on Mr. Saeed.
At his Lahore compound — a fortified house, office and mosque — Mr. Saeed is shielded not only by his supporters, burly men wielding Kalashnikovs outside his door, but also by the Pakistani state. On a recent evening, police officers screened visitors at a checkpoint near his house, while other officers patrolled an adjoining park, watching by floodlight for intruders.
His security seemingly ensured, Mr. Saeed has over the past year addressed large public meetings and appeared on prime-time television, and is now even giving interviews to Western news media outlets he had previously eschewed.
He says that he wants to correct “misperceptions.” During an interview with The New York Times at his home last week, Mr. Saeed insisted that his name had been cleared by the Pakistani courts. “Why does the United States not respect our judicial system?” he asked.
Still, he says he has nothing against Americans, and warmly described a visit he made to the United States in 1994, during which he spoke at Islamic centers in Houston, Chicago and Boston. “At that time, I liked it,” he said with a wry smile…
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One Response
Get over it! There was no Pakistani involved with Bombay. Read the intelligence reports and find out for yourself who did the Bombay attack! It was designed in TelAviv by the Mossad using the "Little India" of Israel and its trained Indian Jews who once land in India are nothing but 100% Indians in every aspect and not a single person among 1.4 billion Indians can ever suspect these Mossad Zionists coming back to India as their sabatours. With the full knowledge and the blessing of their counter part, the CIA, the terror plot was concotted and implemented in Bombaty with precision. Prize of this plot was Pakistan….the only Islamic country with nuclear capabilities! Sinc then till this day this plot to disarm Pakistan is the top priority of Israel and America must take full responsibilities to work hand-in-glove with the Mossad to do whatever it takes to disarm Pakistan. Then came making of the Prime Minister Modi who is the result of Mossad-CIA-MI6 to poke holes in the third most significant player of BRICS. Brick by brick USA-UK-EU-Israel is in full swing to destablize Pakistan through its borders. India is now in total control of Tel Aviv and Washington DC. Mody must do what the masters want. First tighten the domestic Muslims of India while the pressure cooker is cooking flase flag tricks for Pakistan. Agitatiion through Kashmir issue mixed with Islamic terrorism makes the perfect cocktail to induce most potent potiion of suacide for Pakistan. While destablization are underway fwom variouis directions of Pakistan, bought off Mossad-CIA Pakistani soldiers are doing their bidding. First a divide and Rule formula must be put in place to pit provincial rivalries among the sold out idiots of Pakistan. After weakening the inner core of Pakistan, move it with the big kill that will come from India-USA-Israel. This last push should finish Pakistan practically bringing Pakistan to the stone age and rest is almost the same what is seen in Iraq, Libya, Somlalia, Afghanistan and Yamen. Next is Iran!!!!