JuD chief decides not to go underground following US bounty

Lahore, Apr 10: After apparent initial jitters on US slapping a USD 10 million bounty on his head, Pakistan's JuD chief and an alleged 26/11 Mumbai mastermind, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed had decided not to go into hiding.

Saeed's "friends in certain quarters" had initially advised him to go underground for some time after the US announced the bounty on him last week, sources said. A JuD leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the outfit felt it would reflect badly on Saeed and JuD if he went underground. The support from almost all political and religious parties of Pakistan, also may have weighed with the Lashkar-e-Taiba founder not to go underground.

The JuD leader claimed apart from the leaders of the DPC, Saeed had the support of mainstream parties like PML-N, PML-Q, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. "The leaders of over 40 parties who are with Saeed under the banner of the Defa-e-Pakistan Council put their weight behind him and asked him to motivate the people against the US and India for their designs against Pakistan," a Jamaat-ud-Dawah leader told PTI by phone.

"Different people will interpret it differently," the leader said. He further said: "Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of the PML-N, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of PML-Q, Javed Hashmi of Imran Khan's party and Fazlur Rehman of the JUI phoned Saeed and expressed solidarity with him." Following such support from political, religious and other leaders, "no one would like to go into hiding" the JuD leader said.

Saeed, who was placed under house arrest for about six months after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, currently heads the JuD. The UN Security Council has declared the JuD a front for the LeT. The JuD chief has become very active after the US announced the bounty for him.

PTI