US announces $10 million bounty on Hafiz Saeed: Report

Saeed's brother-in-law and LeT co-founder Abdul Rehman Makki carries a $3 million bounty.

NEW DELHI:
The United States has placed a $10 million bounty on the head of banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the Times of India reported early Tuesday morning.

US undersecretary of state Wendy Sherman while addressing a gathering at the Aspen Institute on her maiden visit to India, said that both Saeed and his brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki carried a bounty on their head. The latter was a co-founder of the banned outfit and carries a smaller $3 million bounty.

The reward is for the capture or furnishing information which leads to their capture.

Saeed is considered by the US and India to be involved in orchestrating the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks under the alleged tutelage of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The attack has soured relations between Pakistan and India.


Repeated attempts by The Express Tribune to contact the JuD spokesperson Yahya Mujahid for a reaction went unanswered.

According to the report, LeT’s has grown over time, becoming a lethal terror group, expanding its reach as far as Europe and Australia, besides having a large circle of influence within the sub-continent.

Pakistan had banned the LeT in January 2002, and its charity group, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a month after the November 2008 suicide terror assault on Mumbai. Saeed had at one point been placed under house arrest, but was freed by the Lahore High Court, which said there was no evidence that he was involved in any wrongdoing.

In December 2011, a Virginia, US resident pleaded guilty in a US court for 'providing support to a foreign terrorist organisation' by making a propaganda video for the LeT.

Recently, the JuD chief has joined the Difa-e-Pakistan (Defence of Pakistan) movement, which comprises of other alleged militant groups, politicians and prominent former army officers.
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