NEW DELHI: Alleged Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has petitioned the United Nations to get his name struck off the list of terrorists proscribed by the world body, Times Now reported on Tuesday.
Saeed was designated a terrorist by the UN under UNSCR 1267 (UN Security Council Resolution) in December 2008 following the November 2008 attack in Mumbai.
In fact, the US had named him a specially designated global terrorist much earlier, in May 2008.
The Mumbai terror attack had led the US to also announce a $10 million bounty for Saeed. The JuD is alleged to be the front of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was responsible for the 26/11 attack.
Saeed’s petition comes on the heels of his release from house arrest in Pakistan.
Saeed last week walked free, after a judicial body in Pakistan refused to extend his detention and ordered his release citing “insufficient evidence”.
Moments after his release, he said he will gather people across Pakistan for the cause of Kashmir and help Kashmiris secure freedom.
India and the US had expressed deep concern over Saeed’s release, calling for him to be arrested and charged for his crimes.
“The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan. LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terrorist attacks, including a number of American citizens. The Pakistani government should make sure that he is arrested and charged for his crimes,” the US State Department said in a statement, a day after he was freed.
On January 31, Saeed and his four aides – Abdullah Ubaid, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Abdul Rehman Abid and Qazi Kashif Hussain – were detained by Pakistan’s Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and the Fourth Schedule of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
