‘I am here, I am visible. America should give that reward to me’

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN— One of Pakistan’s most notorious extremists mocked the United States during a defiant media conference close to the country’s military headquarters Wednesday, a day after the U.S. slapped a $10 million bounty on him. “I am here, I am visible. America should give that reward money to me,” said Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, referring to the fact that the bounty was given to a man whose whereabouts are not a mystery. “I will be in Lahore tomorrow. America can contact me whenever it wants to.” Analysts have said Pakistan is unlikely to arrest Saeed, founder of the militant group Lashkar-e-taiba, partly because of his alleged links with the country’s intelligence agency. Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said the U.S. must provide “concrete evidence” if it wants Islamabad to act. Saeed, 61, has been accused of orchestrating the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people, including six American citizens. But he operates openly in Pakistan, giving public speeches and appearing on TV talk shows. The U.S. said Tuesday it issued the bounty for information leading to Saeed’s arrest and conviction in response to his increasingly “brazen” appearances.

“America can contact me whenever it wants to.” MILITANT HAFIZ MOHAMMAD SAEED, MOCKING U.S. OVER $10 MILLION BOUNTY

It also offered up to $2 million for Lashkar-e-taiba’s deputy leader, Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, Saeed’s brother-in-law. Pakistan kept Saeed under house arrest for several months after the Mumbai attacks but released him after he challenged his detention in court. It has also resisted Indian demands to do more, saying there isn’t sufficient evidence. Saeed founded Lashkar-e-taiba in the 1980s. Pakistan banned the group in 2002 under U.S. pressure, but it operates with relative freedom under the name of its social welfare wing Jamaat-ud-dawwa.