Pakistan arrests terror suspect in Mumbai attacks, police say

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani authorities Wednesday arrested Hafiz Saeed, the accused mastermind of devastating 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, police said.

Designated a terrorist by the United States, Saeed was the leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group that carried out a four-day coordinated terrorist assault across Mumbai, killing at least 160 people in India’s commercial capital.

Saeed later said he left the group and founded the Jammat-ud-Dawa charity. The organization has been accused of acting as a front to fund militant activities.

In 2012, the United States offered $10 million for information leading to Saeed’s arrest, and two years later it formally named Jammat as a terrorist group.

Analysts see Saeed’s detention as a major move ahead of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s first official visit to the United States. He is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Monday.

In Washington, Trump welcomed the arrest. Trump wrote: “After a ten year search, the so-called ‘mastermind’ of the Mumbai Terror attacks has been arrested in Pakistan. Great pressure has been exerted over the last two years to find him!”

Contrary to Trump’s characterization of a prolonged “search,” however, Pakistani authorities have been aware of Saeed’s whereabouts for years.

His political party participated in national elections last year, and he was photographed casting his ballot. In a 2012 news conference in a hotel near the Pakistani army headquarters, he mocked the U.S. bounty on his head.