Pak will not hand over LeT founder to India: Front organisation

ISLANABAD: The front organisation created by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed has said the Pakistan government is not "so weak" that it will accept India's demand for the handing over of the 'jehadi' leader and ideologue in the wake of the Mumbai terror strikes. The Jamaat-ud-Dawah also claimed that it was not linked to terrorist activities in any way.

The Pakistan government is "not yet so weak that it would hand over its own citizens to India", Jamaat spokesman Abdullah Muntazir told reporters at the organisation's 75-acre complex in Muridke, 30 kms from Lahore, while replying to a question on the status of Hafiz Saeed.

Spokesmen and officials of the Jamaat have made public comments and interactions with the media in the wake of speculative reports in the media here that India was planning to strike the organisation's headquarters in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks.

Hafiz Saeed's name is included in a list of 20 criminals and terrorists whose handing over India has demanded from Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks.

Yahya Mujahid, the chief spokesman of the Jamaat, said though the group offered "philosophical" support to militants in Jammu and Kashmir, it had condemned the Mumbai attacks and claimed that neither the Jamaat nor the LeT was involved in the incident.

Indian and US security officials have linked the LeT to the attacks, believed to have been planned in Pakistan and carried out by Pakistan-based elements. Journalists from Western countries were yesterday allowed to visit the Jamaat headquarters and briefed by Muntazir. "We condemn India for putting (Hafiz Saeed's) name on the list of terrorists."

When Muntazir was asked by NBC News about Indian media reports that a top official with LeT's political wing may have been in contact with the terrorists who carried out the attack in Mumbai, he acknowledged that the official "is one of the central leaders" of the Jamaat but claimed that he "has nothing to do with such kind of acts".

Indian authorities have said they have found the names of several high-ranking LeT members in the satellite phone used by one of the Mumbai attackers.