New Delhi:
The US has put Hafiz Saeed on its list of most-wanted terrorists and has announced a reward of $10 million for information leading to the capture of the man believed to be the mastermind behind the 26/11 terror attacks, which left 166 people, including six Americans, dead in Mumbai. Sources say India pushed the US on this and is now waiting to see if it will change anything in Pakistan, where Saeed, the founder of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, roams a free man.
Foreign Minister SM Krishna today welcomed the US move, announced here by visiting Under-Secretary of Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, saying, "India welcomes this move to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai terror attacks to book. It sends a strong message to the Lashkar, its members and patrons that the international community is together in combatting terrorism. This is a message to terrorists all over the world. I always insisted that he was the brain behind the terror attack in Mumbai."
India and the US, the minister said, had moved "closer than ever before in our common endeavour of fighting terrorism. Both sides have been victims of terrorism."
His cabinet colleague P Chidambaram sounded more hopeful. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, the Home Minister said, "What this announcement will do is it will put pressure on Pakistan. I sincerely hope this will make them take action (against Saeed). Pakistan is in denial and continues to be in denial. We think there is enough material to detain him and interrogate him. Pakistan government is not doing its duty," the minister said.
Government sources said much effort went into this. India, they said, had constantly been in touch with the US and Mr Krishna had repeatedly requested US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to help bring Saeed to justice.
The sources said India knew a week ago about the US' move and was "hopeful and very optimistic that Hafiz will be brought to book." But the ball really is in Pakistan's court; Saeed is a free man there and often holds anti-India rallies. India has repeatedly sought Saeed's arrest, but Pakistan has each time sought "actionable" and "substantive" evidence against him before it can act.
Hafiz Saeed is believed to be a powerful figure in Pakistan. He heads the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, ostensibly a charitable organization, but one that even the United Nations has said fronts the deadly Lashkar. Saeed allegedly has close links with the army and the ISI. Ministers have been seen at public rallies that he has held in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad.
Analysts on both sides of the border say the US move is unlikely to do anything more than embarrass Pakistan at a time when relations between those two countries are at an all- time low, but government sources said they hoped it would at least bring overt diplomatic pressure on Pakistan on the issue of Hafiz Saeed, who has been on India's list of most-wanted men for several years and was named a global terrorist in 2008.
The US bounty puts Saeed at par with Taliban founder Mullah Omar, whom the US holds responsible for the 9/11 attacks of 2001. Both the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the terror outfit Lashkar are blacklisted by the US. The US has also announced a $ 3 million bounty for Saeed's brother-in-law and the man who allegedly co-founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Abdul Rehman Makki.
On its Rewards for Justice website, America describes Saeed as a red-haired Pakistani citizen with brown eyes, born on May 6, 1950 in Sargodha in the Punjab province of Pakistan. (
US announcement on $10 mn reward for capture of Hafiz Saeed)
Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, it says, "is a former professor of Arabic and Engineering, as well as the founding member of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a radical Deobandi Islamist organization dedicated to installing Islamist rule over parts of India and Pakistan, and its military branch, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. 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."