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Pakistani militant leader makes public appearance despite U.S. bounty

04 April 2012 20:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A top Pakistan militant leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, on Wednesday laughed at the U.S. announcement of a 10-million-U.S.-dollar bounty for his arrest, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"I am here in the city and not hiding in mountains," Saeed, chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa group, told reporters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad.

Saeed joined other senior religious leaders at a meeting and later addressed a joint press conference, defying the U.S. notice on the Rewards of Justice website of the U.S. administration.

"I am not hiding anywhere and working openly. If the U.S. wants to contact me, I am present here, they can contact me. I am also ready to face any American court, or wherever there is proof against me," Saeed told reporters.

Saeed’s Jamat-ud-Dawa is part of an alliance of the religio- political parties, the Defence of Pakistan Counsel (DPC), which strongly condemned the U.S. 10-million-dollar reward slapped on Saeed and declared it as interference in Pakistan’s internal matter.

The Foreign Ministry said that Pakistan would prefer to receive concrete evidence to proceed legally rather than to be engaging in a public discussion on this issue.

Responding to a question regarding U.S. bounty on Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and his aide, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman underlined that in a democratic country like Pakistan, where judiciary is independent, evidence against anyone must withstand judicial scrutiny.

"The U.S. announcement of bounty on me is ridiculous and totally nonsense," Saeed said.

The DPC also announced nationwide protests on Friday to denounce the U.S. bounty, chief of the alliance Maulana Sami-ul- Haq said.

The U.S. accuses Hafiz Saeed of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Haq said that Pakistani government should not allow the United States to interfere in Pakistan’s internal issues, adding that Hafiz Saeed is ready to face courts in Pakistan. He said the U.S. slapped bounty on him for his opposition to the restoration of NATO supply line and U.S. drone strikes in the tribal regions.

Saeed also said that the bounty is kept on those who live in caves, adding that the United States can directly contact him any time.

"The U.S. should give the reward money to me as I am present in the public," the leader said. He said he has neither been wanted in the United States nor charged or convicted by any American court.