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This Article is From Apr 04, 2012

Lashkar-e-Taiba founder says US bounty at 'India's behest'

Lashkar-e-Taiba founder says US bounty at 'India's behest'
Islamabad: The founder of the Pakistan-based Islamist group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks who was hit on Tuesday with a $10 million US government bounty said the move had come at the behest of arch-rivals India.

Washington has offered the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is blamed by India and the United States for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.

The decision was announced by US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman announced the move in India on Monday.

"The action against me is also an act of terrorism and America is doing it on the behest of India which is making fool out of it," he told Agence France Presse (AFP).

He said the United States had slapped him with the bounty because of a campaign he was leading to stop the Pakistani government reopening NATO and US supply routes to Afghanistan.

"The movement that we have organised after the formation of Defence of Pakistan Council is becoming very effective and it is impacting parliament's decision about NATO supplies and this factor is disturbing for America and that is why they have announced a bounty on me," he told AFP.

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