Jamat ud Dawa (JuD) chief and the man India wants for the November 26, 2008 terror attacks, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed on Monday scoffed at the idea that U.S. and India can get together and stop the funding of groups like JuD.
India was creating false propaganda about him and U.S. was being fooled into believing it, he said. They want to get together and stop JuD funds - things don’t happen this way, he said, while responding to questions on India and U.S. announcing cooperation to stop fund raising of terror groups. Saeed said India had created a massive propaganda against him but in the whole world, JuD is recognised for its relief and rescue work in floods and earthquakes.
As if to buttress that point, he conducted his media conference sitting in the middle of sacks of food, plastic water cans, Star Wars games and clothes meant to be Id gifts for the people of Awaran and other areas affected by the earthquake in Balochistan. He blamed India for the unrest in Balochistan and said that there were absolutely no problems there otherwise. The JuD had plunged into relief and rescue within a few hours after the earthquake. Though there were two or three incidents which the media played up creating an atmosphere of fear, things had quietened down and it was very peaceful there, he said.
He said his organization doesn’t take money from the Pakistan government. “Our entire funding is from the people and they trust us- they believe in our work- our organizations are registered with the government and the accounts are audited regularly,” he pointed out. After the Mumbai attacks, there were US sanctions on his organization and bank accounts were frozen. “We challenged it in courts and even in the high court I got relief. India had also presented some proof but the high court cleared me and JUD in that case.Later it also came up before a full bench of the Supreme Court which also cleared me,” he said. Now no one can stop JUD from doing its humanitarian work, he added.
Saeed said that he had raised the issue of Kashmir in a recent rally in September. “Because we are raising a strong voice for Kashmir, India is upset. When Nawaz Sharif took the name of Kashmir in his UN General Assembly speech, Manmohan Singh’s face fell and he immediately repeated that Kashmir was an “atoot ang” (integral part) of India and tried to fan the flames even there,” he said.
