No need for bounty, we are not hiding in caves: Hafiz Muhammad Saeed

ISLAMABAD: Responding to the $10 million US bounty on information leading to his arrest, the founder of Lashkare-Taiba, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, on Tuesday said America is frustrated with his protests against resumption of Nato supplies, and it must immediately vacate South Asia and avoid pleasing India through “cheap strategies”.

“There’s no need of announcing bounties. We are not hiding in caves. I think the US is frustrated with our protests against the resumption of Nato supplies and drone attacks,” Hafiz Saeed told television channels.

“I believe the US has either very little knowledge and is basing its decisions on wrong information provided by India or it is just frustrated,” he said, adding that Americans are trying to please India by using cheap strategies. “The US should immediately vacate the subcontinent,” Saeed said.

The US rewards for justice programme sponsored by the state department had announced a cash reward of $10 million for the 62-year-old Saeed on its website on Monday . US undersecretary of state Wendy Sherman, on a visit to India, also announced a $3 million bounty on Abul Rehman Makki, Saeed’s brother-in-law.

The bounty on Saeed is same as the one on Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and second only to al-Qaida number one Ayman al Zawahiri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden after his liquidation in Abbottabad in Pakistan in May last year.

Pakistan had put Saeed under house arrest a month after the 2008 Mumbai attacks , but he was released in 2009. In 2010, the Pakistan Supreme Court upheld his release on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to detain him.

The reward announcement comes at a time when president Asif Ali Zardari is due to visit India.

Analysts believe that the US move is designed to pressure Saeed and the Pakistan government. “Saeed has been the key person organizing rallies against the reopening of Nato supply lines through Pakistan. The US wants to curtail his activities at a time when the government is debating the reopening of supply lines to Nato forces in Afghanistan,” said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a defence analyst.