Who is Hafiz Saeed?

The US has offered a $10 million dollar bounty for the capture of Hafiz Muhammed Saeed in what is seen as a huge fillip to India’s efforts against terrorism. Saeed, is the leader or the amir of Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a charity organization that is widely considered to be a cover organization for Lashkar-e-Taiba, accused of  being behind a string of attacks in India including the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes and and the 2001 attack on the Lok Sabha of Parliament. [caption id=“attachment_264295” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Saeed is known for his anti India sentiments: PTI”]  [/caption] According to this article in the Hindu, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, was born in a conservative, Punjabi family which lost 36 of its members during its Partition journey from Shimla to Lahore. The article says, “Saeed was appointed by General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq to the state-run Council on Islamic Ideology, and was later given a position at Lahore’s University of Engineering and Technology” Saeed has been arrested in Pakistan numerous times in connection with attacks carried out on Indian soil. He was detained in 2001 and 2002 in connection with the attack on the Lok Sabha and placed under house arrest in 2006 after a series of train bombings in Mumbai. However, the arrests have largely been cosmetic with hardly any effect on the functioning of his organisation. On 11 December, 2008 he was again placed under house arrest when the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa to be a front for the terror group LeT . He was held in house arrest under the Maintenance of Public Order law, until early June 2009 when the Lahore High Court, deeming the containment to be unconstitutional, ordered Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to be released. Saeed has always been vocal about his anti-India stance and has been famously quoted as saying, “There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy” and “India has shown us this path. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir.” He has been on India’s most wanted list since the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.