India hails US$ 10m bounty on Hafiz Saeed head
Press Trust of India
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, 3 APRIL: Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba (LeT) founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed has become one of only four terrorist leaders for whom the USA has offered a bounty of US$ 10 million. India welcomed the announcement saying it would send a strong signal to the Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) that had masterminded the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and its patrons.
Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar has a similar bounty on his head as have Al Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Du'a and Yasin al-Suri alias Ezedin Abdel Aziz Khalil, a senior Al Qaida facilitator based in Iran. Al Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri carries the highest bounty ~ US$ 25 million that the USA is offering under its Rewards for Justice programme.
India welcomes US notification under the Rewards for Justice Programme. (It) sends a strong signal to LeT as also its members and patrons that the international community remains united in combating terrorism, MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said on Twitter. Later, in a statement, Syed Akbaruddin said the USA held both Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba and Jamaat-ul-Dawa as foreign terrorist organisations and had also individually cited Hafiz Saeed and Abdul Rahman Makki for terrorist activities as per its law. The USA has also offered a US$ 2 million bounty for Saeed's deputy Abdul Rahman Makki, who is described on the Rewards for Justice website as the second in command of the LeT.
The listing for 61-year-old Saeed on the Rewards for Justice website describes him as a former professor of Arabic and Engineering who was a founding member of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a radical Deobandi Islamist organisation dedicated to installing Islamist rule over parts of India and Pakistan, and its military branch, Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba.
Saeed is suspected of masterminding numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 166 people, including six American citizens, the listing reads. The website noted that India had issued an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Saeed for his role in the Mumbai attacks. And also that the US department of treasury had designated Saeed as a Specially Designated National under Executive Order 13224. The Order provides a means to disrupt the financial support network for terrorists and terrorist groups by authorising the US government to designate and block the assets of foreign individuals and entities that commit, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.
The US designated the LeT a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in December 2001 and the JuD was given the same designation in April 2008. The UN Security Council declared the JuD a terrorist organisation in December 2008, soon after the Mumbai attacks.
Saeed, born on 6 May, 1950 at Sargodha in Punjab province, was put under house arrest for less than six months after the Mumbai attacks, largely due to pressure from the international community. He was freed in 2009 on the orders of Lahore High Court. Though the LeT was banned by the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan government has not formally outlawed the JuD.
India hails US$ 10m bounty on Hafiz Saeed head
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