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Hafiz Saeed Bounty: U.S. Offers $10 Million For Pakistani Militant Chief
Hafiz Saeed Bounty: U.S. Offers $10 Million For Pakistani Militant Chief
ISLAMABAD The United States has offered a $10 million bounty for a Pakistani militant leader who allegedly orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai attacks and has been directing an anti-American political movement in recent months.
The move could complicate U.S.-Pakistan relations at a tense time. Pakistan's parliament is debating a revised framework for ties with the U.S. following American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
The reward is for "information leading to the arrest and conviction" of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who founded the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba with alleged Pakistani support in the 1980s to pressure archenemy India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The U.S. also offered up to $2 million for Lashkar-e-Taiba's deputy leader, Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, who is Saeed's brother-in-law.
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 even doing charity work using government money.
The U.S. has designated both groups as foreign terrorist organizations. Intelligence officials and terrorism experts say Lashkar-e-Taiba has expanded 1/4 focus beyond India in recent years and has plotted attacks in Europe and Australia. Some have called it "the next al-Qaida" and fear it could set its sights on the U.S.
Saeed operates openly in Pakistan from his base in the eastern city of Lahore and travels widely, giving public speeches and appearing on TV talk shows. He has been one of the leading figures of the Difa-e-Pakistan, or Defense of Pakistan Council, which has held a series of large demonstrations in recent months against the U.S. and India.
Hafiz Saeed Bounty: U.S. Offers $10 Million For Pakistani Militant Chief