Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120360621000.htm

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Take action against LeT founder, says India

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: New Delhi has asked Pakistan to take action against Hafiz Saeed, the founder leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group suspected of involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

Official sources said Saeed is one of three individuals in a list of 20 against whom India demanded immediate action by the Pakistan government. The other two are the Mumbai underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, believed to be living in Pakistan, and Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar, a Pakistan national freed from an Indian prison in exchange for passengers on a hijacked Indian Airlines plane.

The Indian government, which handed over the list to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Monday, is believed to have asked Islamabad to “prioritise” action against these three.

Indian officials here denied that three names had been flagged for action by Pakistan. They said all names in the list were “equally” important.

The list is virtually the same handed over to Pakistan at every meeting of the Home Secretaries under the composite dialogue framework. It was given to Pakistan as recently as the day before the Mumbai attacks, when the Home Secretaries met here. Pakistan has denied that Dawood, wanted for involvement in the 1993 Mumbai bombings, and Maulana Masood Azhar live anywhere in this country.

Information Minister Sherry Rahman told journalists that Pakistan was examining the list and would formulate a response accordingly.

According to officials here, the point behind giving Pakistan a list of names to act against, even if most of them may not be involved in the latest Mumbai attacks, appears to be to test the government’s pledge of cooperation. It is unclear if Saeed was always on the list or if he had been included after the Mumbai outrage, in which the LeT has emerged as a prime suspect.

In terror watch list

The LeT itself has been banned in Pakistan since 2002, but resurfaced under a front called Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) under Saeed’s leadership.

Despite its claims of being a charity organisation, the U.S. put it on a terror watch list in 2006.

Saeed has spent brief periods behind bars, once immediately after the ban on LeT, and under house arrest in 2006, both times under an act called Maintenance of Public Order. India has asked that he should be arrested, and the JuD banned as well.