Pakistan to arrest cleric accused in Mumbai attack

[hulaku]

By BABAR DOGAR
Associated Press Writer

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani police plan to arrest a hardline cleric accused by India in the Mumbai terror attacks on charges of raising funds for the banned Islamist group he heads, a senior officer said Friday.

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed says his Jamaat-ud-Dawa is a charity that helps victims of natural disasters and the poor.

Pakistan banned the group after a U.N. resolution declared it was a front for the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India and the United States believes carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Police officer Mohammed Tahir said Friday that two criminal cases had been filed against Saeed because he illegally held a public gathering and raised funds for Jamaat-ud-Dawa in the city of Faisalabad in Punjab province last month.

"We will definitely arrest him," Tahir told The Associated Press, without saying when.

A spokesman for Saeed said he had yet to be arrested and that he planned to consult with lawyers.

Lashkar, which Saeed helped establish in the late 1980s, is accused of sending the teams of gunmen that rampaged through Mumbai last November in an attack on luxury hotels, a busy train station and other sites. The three-day siege left 166 people dead.

Pakistan arrested Saeed in December after India provided a dossier of evidence in a rare sharing of intelligence. But in June, a Pakistani court freed Saeed from house arrest, saying there was not enough evidence to hold him.

India maintains he played a role in the attacks and has called on Pakistan to arrest him.

Lashkar is widely believed to have enjoyed the support of elements of Pakistan's security agencies in the 1980s and 1990s because it was sending militants to fight Indian-rule in Kashmir, which Pakistan also claims.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since they were formed in 1947.

© 2009 The Associated Press.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PAKISTAN_MUMBAI_ATTACKS?SITE=ALANN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

This after the US Ambassador called on Pakistan to go after this guy.

[hulaku]

STAFF WRITER 12:11 HRS IST
New Delhi, Sept 18 (PTI Piling up pressure on Pakistan, the United States today said it was important that "swift and lengthy" punishment should be slapped on six Mumbai terror attack suspects, including LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, in that country.

"Swift and lengthy punishment for six suspects of Mumbai attacks in Pakistan is important for the US and India," US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer told reporters after meeting Home Minister P Chidambaram here.

The US envoy's comments came ahead of the meeting of Foreign Ministers of India and Pakistan in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly session.

The Ambassador said it was important for the US and India that action is taken against the LeT founder and terror infrastructure in Pakistan is dismantled.

""Going after Hafiz Saeed and dismantling terror infrastructure in that region is extremely important for both US and India," he said
http://www.ptinews.com/news/288626_Pak-should-go-after-Saeed--US-envoy

It is high time that the Pakistani Government took action against these Islamist scumbags.

[3rdMillhouse]

It's shame that Pakistan is nowhere interested in achieving peace or good relationships with India; a great step foward towards peace could be made if Pakistan extradicted the terrorists so they could be judged by the Indian justice.

[Hollis]

It's shame that Pakistan is nowhere interested in achieving peace or good relationships with India; a great step foward towards peace could be made if Pakistan extradicted the terrorists so they could be judged by the Indian justice.


It takes two to tangle at times. Who knows maybe India and Pakistan will move in towards each other in a more friendly and cooperative manner. That would be a nice thing to see happen.

[pg_ord]

It takes two to tangle at times. Who knows maybe India and Pakistan will move in towards each other in a more friendly and cooperative manner. That would be a nice thing to see happen.
Punishing the perps instead of foot dragging and pussy footing would certainly help. ;)

[VAMAN]

It takes two to tangle at times. Who knows maybe India and Pakistan will move in towards each other in a more friendly and cooperative manner. That would be a nice thing to see happen.
If India and Pakistan became friendly then they have to reunite. The whole existence of Pakistan is based on haterd towards India.

[hskywalker]

If India and Pakistan became friendly then they have to reunite. The whole existence of Pakistan is based on haterd towards India.
Join us or be our enemy. We have a real indian imperialist here.

[LoneWulf]

Join us or be our enemy. We have a real indian imperialist here.

"indian imperialist" LOL nice try panda! But an epic fail.

[dredger14]

Join us or be our enemy. We have a real indian imperialist here.

Go to any PRC forum(pretend you are not chinese, try atleast) and see that statement fall smack in your face.

[vinny_121_ND]

The problem with arresting him would be more suicide bombs going off in Pakistan as retaliation.

[hulaku]

It's shame that Pakistan is nowhere interested in achieving peace or good relationships with India; a great step foward towards peace could be made if Pakistan extradicted the terrorists so they could be judged by the Indian justice.

The fact remains that this person was responsible for the horrendous and barbaric attack in which not only Indians but Americans, British, Greek, Singaporean, Israeli etc. were killed. Asking for his extradition would be a long shot knowing how many people who masterminded terror attacks on India enjoy their life in Pakistan. India has provided the proof to Pakistan on a number of occasions but they are not acting upon it.

What the world has to realize, is that, not only do these Islamomaniacs hate India they feel the same for the West and Israel. Today they are perpetrating attacks on India tomorrow they would be doing the same thing in Pakistan or in the West.

The Pakistanis bow to American pressure and bundle off any terror suspect to the US without blinking an eye. What about people accused of terror attacks on India? They remain scotfree and continue spewing venom against India.This double standard has to stop.

Another factor which the world should see is that since the Mumbai attack there have been no major Islamist terror attack in India (besides Kashmir). There was great pressure on Pakistani Government and they somehow seem to have a kind of control on these terror organisations either directly or indirectly.

Earlier also after the attack on the Indian Parliament when the Indian Army was mobilised at the border there were no terror attacks for more than a year. Makes one think.

Rant over


It takes two to tangle at times. Who knows maybe India and Pakistan will move in towards each other in a more friendly and cooperative manner. That would be a nice thing to see happen.

Totally agree. We look forward to the day when we have peaceful relations and both countries can take care of problems like poverty, education, female empowerment and rural development.

[hulaku]

LAHORE, Pakistan (*******) - Pakistani authorities have curbed the movements of an Islamist militant leader accused by India of masterminding last year's Mumbai attack, police and the militant's aides said on Monday.

India wants Pakistan to prosecute Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, before it resumes a peace process broken off after last November's assault on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.

Police took position outside Saeed's residence in the eastern city of Lahore, and his aides said he was barred from leaving to lead prayers for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr festival on Monday.

"There are no written orders but he is not allowed to go out of his home. He has been barred from performing his religious duty, it is against basic human rights," said Yahya Mujahid, a spokesman for Saeed, adding that Saeed's son led the prayers.

A senior police official, Sohail Sukhera, told reporters outside Saeed's residence that his movements had been restricted for security reasons, but said he was not under house arrest.

India wants forceful action against Saeed and other suspects before it resumes formal talks under a peace process launched in 2004, although the nuclear-armed rivals have held three bilateral meetings on the sidelines of international gatherings.

DIPLOMACY

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is to meet his Indian counterpart, S.M. Krishna, in New York on September 27 on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly, after their foreign secretaries, or top diplomats, meet a day earlier.

The talks may help ease fraught relations between the countries, whose rivalry complicates U.S. efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan.

Pakistan detained Saeed in December after a U.N. Security Council resolution put him and a charity he heads on a list of people and organizations supporting al Qaeda.

But a court released him June on grounds of insufficient evidence, prompting the government to appeal to the Supreme Court for his re-arrest. The case is pending.

The restrictions on Saeed came two days after Interior Minister Rehman Malik said he was being investigated and would be arrested after concrete evidence was made available against him.

Police also lodged two complaints against Saeed on Friday for delivering a speech on jihad, or Muslim holy war, and appealing for funds for his banned charity, Jammat-ud-Dawa.

Pakistan has acknowledged that the Mumbai attack was plotted and partly launched from its soil and has been holding trial of seven suspects behind closed doors in a jail.

The next hearing is scheduled for September 24.
http://www.*******.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE58K0W620090921?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

The Pig cannot stray out of his Pig sty now.