$10M FOR CAPTURE OF SAEED: U.S.
Suspect in Mumbai attack lives in Pakistan
ISL A MABAD • The United States has slapped a US$10million bounty on Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of the Islamist terror group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, who lives openly in Pakistan.
But analysts were sceptical whether the cash bounty would have any effect.
Mr. Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-taiba (LET) group, makes frequent public appearances in Pakistan and is seen as being protected by the country’s powerful ISI military intelligence agency.
Many in India believe the Us$10-million bounty will do little to alter Pakistan’s record of failing to crack down on Islamist terrorists operating inside the country with the tacit support of the authorities.
“He is intrinsically linked to the ISI, the paramilitary and the proxy fighting apparatus in Pakistan, so he is high up the chain,” said analyst Sreeram Chaulia.
“The Pakistan establishment will not hand him over for the bounty, and any private citizen who tries to make cash through tipping off the Americans will be targeted,” said the professor at the Jindal School of International Affairs in Sonipat.
Prof. Chaulia said the bounty came as tensions remain high after the death of Osama bin Laden who was found and killed in Pakistan by U.S. soldiers last year.
The Indian government welcomed the bounty for Mr. Saeed. “It reflects the commitment of India and the United States to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attack to justice,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“It also sends a strong signal to LET and also its members and patrons that the international community remains united in combating terrorism.”
Brahma Chellaney, an analyst at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, suggested the bounty actually reflected a failure of U.S. policy towards Pakistan.
“Offer of bounties ... suggests the U.S. has given up on Pakistan military reining in its terrorist proxies,” he wrote on Twitter.
However, Pakistani analyst Imtiaz Gul said previous unsuccessful legal action against Mr. Saeed made it difficult to detain him again.
“Arrest him on what grounds? The mere fact that the U.S. says something may not necessarily relate in a legal case against somebody,” he said. “There has to be some sort of evidence that you can prove in a court of law.”
The reward for Mr. Saeed was announced by U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman in India on Monday and posted on the U.S. government’s Rewards for Justice website.
The money offered for information leading to Mr. Saeed’s arrest and conviction is eclipsed only by al-qaeda leader Ayman al-zawahiri, who commands a bounty of Us$25-million and who some analysts also suspect is hiding in Pakistan.
Mr. Saeed is head of the banned charity Jamaat-udDawa, seen as a front for LET, and on March 27 addressed thousands of people in Islamabad, urging Pakistan not to reopen its Afghan border to NATO and U.S. supply convoys.
The Rewards for Justice notice said Mr. Saeed was “suspected of masterminding numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 166 people, including six American citizens.”
Washington also posted a Us$2-million reward for Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, described as Let’s second-incommand.
The bounty could complicate recent efforts made by Pakistan and the United States towards repairing their fragile war on terror alliance, which nearly ruptured over U.S. air strikes which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Nov. 24.
It is also deeply unclear whether Pakistani authorities will move against Mr. Saeed, whose charity is known nationwide for its relief work after the 2005 earthquake and floods in 2010, and which has long denied terror accusations.
He was put under house arrest a month after the Mumbai attacks, but was released in 2009 and in 2010 the Supreme Court upheld his release on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to detain him.
Mr. Saeed on Tuesday dismissed the bounty as an “act of terrorism” from the United States at India’s behest in order to jeopardize his campaigning against Pakistan reopening NATO supply lines to Afghanistan. “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 said.