Hafiz Saeed wants to destroy India: Ex-CIA officer
"Saeed, a very public figure in Pakistan and admired by its military, advocates a truly extreme vision: the restoration of the Mughal empire and the destruction of India," Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and now a senior fellow in the Seban Center at Brookings Institute, said.
America's decision to announce a bounty of $10 million on Saeed would further deteriorate its relationship with Pakistan, he wrote in 'The Daily Beast'. Saeed, he said, stayed in close contact with bin Laden until his death in May 2011 in a covert US raid, according to the material found in the al-Qaeda leader's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
"Saeed openly mourned bin Laden in a bitter eulogy the Friday after the SEALs delivered justice to bin Laden," wrote Riedel, who was among the three members appointed by US President Barack Obama to review and formulate a new Af-Pak policy for the administration.
Riedel said Saeed's ambitions are not limited to Kashmir alone. "It is destruction of India. LeT's ideology as laid out by Saeed goes far beyond recovering the Muslim parts of Kashmir for Pakistan. He seeks the creation of a Muslim caliphate over the entire subcontinent.
The LeT's role model is the old Mughal empire of the 17th and 18th centuries that dominated most of the subcontinent with a Muslim minority ruling the Hindu majority," he wrote.
"The vision of Saeed and his fellow leaders of LeT requires the literal destruction of India as a state. Saeed announced this goal in a speech in 1999 after the short Kargil war with India, saying, 'today I announce the break-up of India, Inshallah (God willing). We will not rest until the whole of India is dissolved into Pakistan'," Riedel wrote.
"One LeT newspaper captured the spirit of its ideology with this passage, 'Kashmir can be liberated in six months. Within a couple of years, the rest of the territories of India could be conquered as well, and we can regain our lost glory. We can bring back the era of Mughal rule. We can once again subjugate the Hindus like our forefathers'. As the US and India grow closer, the LeT increasingly sees America as its enemy," Riedel wrote.
Riedel
said
Saeed
and
the
LeT
have
also
benefited
for
years
from
the
patronage
of
the
Pakistani
army
and
ISI.
"He
is
a
frequent
guest
at
army
functions
and
his
headquarters
near
Lahore
is
guarded
by
nearby
ISI
offices.
Saeed's
current
campaign
to
stop
the
drones,
to
keep
NATO
supply
lines
to
Afghanistan
via
Karachi
closed
and
to
sever
US
-Pakistan
relations
would
not
be
possible
without
the
support
of
the
ISI,"
he
said.
"By putting a bounty on his head now, the Obama administration has not only raised the ante with LeT, it has considerably raised the ante with its patrons and protectors in the Pakistani army," Riedel said.
Separately, an investigative US media website said that the announcement of $10 million bounty on Saeed's head shows the Obama administration has decided to take a hardline with Islamabad.
The ProPublica, which has done a series of investigative stories on the Mumbai terror attacks and David Coleman Headley, said that Saeed has a close relationship with ISI.
"As we reported, Headley revealed that Saeed helped plan the Mumbai attacks. He credited Saeed for inspiring him to 'jihad' and, after his arrest, told interrogators about Saeed's ties to Pakistani intelligence.
'He is very close to ISI,' Headley said of Saeed. 'He is well protected'," it said in its latest article following the announcement made by the State Department. It said the announcements show how much US-Pakistani relations have deteriorated as the Obama administration has taken a harder line with Islamabad.
Although
US
prosecutors
have
not
indicted
Saeed,
the
offer
of
the
reward
is
clearly
intended
to
increase
pressure
on
Lashkar,
the
ISI
and
the
Pakistani
government,
it
said.
"Saeed
is
a
powerful
public
figure
in
Pakistan
and
has
held
mass
rallies
in
recent
months
in
which
he
denounced
the
West
and
India,"
it
said.
"Pakistani authorities have also refused to arrest Mir, Major Iqbal and other suspects despite abundant evidence against them. Their whereabouts, like Saeed's, are well-known," the article said.
PTI