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JuD chief Saeed says 'Do I look like a terrorist?' while denying hand in Mumbai attacks | The Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, who is believed to have masterminded the brazen terror
attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, has denied his role in the bloodbath. Saeed, whose name is on top of the US, UN and European Union's (EU) most wanted list
in Pakistan, also denied his links with the banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT) and stressed that even the agencies could not table any evidence regarding
his involvement in the Mumbai massacre in which 166 people including some foreigners
were killed. "Do I look like a terrorist?" a bearded Saeed told The Independent
newspaper. Saeed's comments almost coincided with the strategic dialogue between
Pakistan and the United States in Washington. Saeed, who moves freely in Lahore
guarded by two Pakistani policemen, said he has won court battles to remain free
and described charges against him of having links with the LeT as "Indian propaganda".
Saeed said he too had condemned the ghastly Mumbai terror attacks, but added that
he supports the LeT's struggle for "freedom" in Kashmir. He insisted that neither
he nor the JuD has any terror links, rather it is a charity which has hundreds
of offices across Pakistan working for the needy ones. "They make me out to be
the biggest and most evil terrorist. Do I look like one to you?," Saeed said laughing.
When asked that whether he had met Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, Saeed's response
was positive but he was quick to add that he has met Laden only once that too
on a Haj pilgrimage to Mecca in the 1980s. Saeed said he prayed near Laden and
talked to him "but only briefly." Saeed's statements are likely to widen the 'trust
deficit' in Washington where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed the
dawn of 'a new day' after 'years of misunderstandings' in the relationship between
the US and Pakistan. |
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