By Michael Georgy and Qasim Nauman
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, April 4 (Reuters) – Who wants to be a
millionaire?
In Pakistan, all you have to do is give the United States
information leading to the arrest or conviction of Hafiz Saeed –
an Islamist leader whose whereabouts are usually not a mystery.
Saeed is suspected of masterminding the attack on India’s
financial capital Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people,
including six Americans.
U.S. authorities placed a bounty on Monday of up to $10
million on Saeed, but on Wednesday he was openly wandering
across Pakistan’s military garrison town of Rawalpindi, hanging
out with some of the most anti-American characters in the
country.
“This is a laughable, absurd announcement. Here I am in
front of everyone, not hiding in a cave,” Saeed told a news
conference at a hotel – a mere 40-minute drive from the U.S.
Embassy in Islamabad and just across from the headquarters of
Pakistan’s army, recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. aid.
“Now that he has a price on his head, for this money anyone
is willing to do anything,” said Javed, a 55-year-old government
employee who declined to give his full name.
“Once people see the money there is no saving him, only God
can save him.”
In Washington, U.S. officials said the decision to offer the
$10 million reward under the State Department’s longstanding
“Rewards for Justice” program came after months of discussions
among U.S. agencies involved in counter-terrorism.
The $10 million figure signifies major U.S. interest in
Saeed. Only three other militants, including Taliban leader
Mullah Omar, fetch that high a bounty. There is a $25 million
bounty on the head of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
At the same time it targeted Saeed, the U.S. government also
offered a smaller reward – $2 million – for Hafiz Abdul Rahman
Makki, whom it said was the second in command of the militant
group founded by Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
As with many militants sought by the United States – and
unlike Saeed – Makki’s whereabouts are unknown to U.S.
authorities. The bounty would be paid for information leading to
his location.
The announcement of a reward for Saeed comes at a time of
heightened tension between the United States and Pakistan and is
likely to increase pressure on Pakistan to take action against
the former Arabic scholar. It is also likely to please India,
the target of numerous LeT attacks.
Released from house arrest in 2009, Saeed is a free man in
Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally and one of the world’s most
unstable countries.
The United States, which sees Saeed as a major security
threat with links to al Qaeda, is hoping the bounty will trigger
a stampede of Pakistanis who come forward with information that
could lead to his arrest and conviction.
Pakistani officials say Saeed and his organisation,
Jamaat-ud-Dawa, have been cleared by Pakistani courts.
They say they don’t understand what all the fuss is about
and complain the Americans are acting like cowboys.
“The United States is acting like it’s Clint Eastwood,” said
a senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It’s as if they just want to ride a horse into Pakistan and
just drag people like him away.”
Another security official nodded in agreement while a
television repeatedly showed footage of Saeed.
“What would happen if we put a bounty on President (Barack)
Obama’s head because American drone strikes sometimes kill
Pakistani civilians?”
The drone strikes, which the United States regards as a
highly effective and accurate weapon against militants, are
deeply unpopular in Pakistan.
STREET SUPPORT
Saeed, a short, bearded man with a quiet but intense
demeanor and henna-dyed hair, has turned the drone strikes and
other explosive issues like the presence of Western troops in
Afghanistan into a rallying cry against the United States.
That has won him support on Pakistan’s streets.
“He wants the drone strikes to stop. He wants the bloodshed
in Afghanistan to end,” said a senior police official in
Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi.
“Hafiz Saeed isn’t saying anything wrong. In fact, he’s a
patriot.”
Some Pakistanis could not understand why the bounty was
issued while Saeed is in plain view.
His capture may ultimately depend on cooperation from
Pakistan, often accused by the West of supporting militant
groups. Pakistan denies the charges.
“It is unlikely that anything will come out of this. You put
bounties on people who are hiding, not those walking around
free,” said businessman Haris Chaudhry. “It’s ridiculous.”
Saeed, 61, founded LeT in the 1990s and it became one of
South Asia’s best-funded militant organisations.
He abandoned its leadership after India accused it of being
behind an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001.
India has long called for Saeed’s capture, blaming the LeT
for the Mumbai carnage. He denies any wrongdoing and links to
militants.
The former professor of Islamic studies seemed unfazed by
the bounty.
As stern-faced bodyguards with AK-47 assault rifles kept a
close watch, he ridiculed the Americans during his press
conference at The Flashman’s Hotel.
He was flanked by some of Pakistan’s most hard line
Islamists
who all belong to an alliance of groups campaigning for a break
in ties with the United States and India.
They included Sami-ul-Haq, a cleric best known as “the
father of the Taliban” for his historical ties to the Afghan
militant movement. Another member, Hamid Gul, a former head of
Pakistan’s intelligence service, was also present.
On the edge of Islamabad, a Pakistani intelligence officer
who has handled militant groups for decades, shook his head as
he pondered the U.S. reward.
“If the guy who decided to do this could get a job in the
State Department, then I could be the president of the United
States,” the chuckling operative, wearing a suit and puffing on
a cigarette, said.
“God bless America.”
(Additional reporting by Rebecca Conway and Mahawish Rezvi in;
ISLAMABAD, and Imtiaz Shah in KARACHI; Editing By Warren Strobel
and Philip Barbara)
