Hafiz Saeed’s release exposes a total sham

True to expectations, the chief of Pakistan-based terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa, who is believed to have been the mastermind of the Mumbaiterror attacks of 2008, which took a toll of 166 lives, has been freed in Pakistan by a court. That the arrest of Saeed was a complete sham was clear from the manner in which, despite repeated reminders, the Pakistanis failed to chargesheet him in all these months since he was put under house arrest in January last.

The writing was on the wall even more clearly last month when the Pakistan government withdrew terror charges against him and his fledgling political party, and kept him under detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO). The fact of the matter was that Saeed has been the blue-eyed boy of the Pakistan establishment, especially the Army which has been using him to cause subversion in India. It suited the Army to have him doing what it wanted, with the facade of being a civilian indulging in philanthropic activities which were a cover for his nefarious work. Saeed’s release makes a mockery of justice in Pakistan and puts into grave doubt the intentions of the government which professes to work for peace with India but in actual fact fuels tension and conflict.

That India has protested strongly to Pakistan was to be expected. Saeed has been breathing fire against India and has masterminded many other terrorist operations (besides the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008) with impunity. Both the UN and the US have designated Saeed as a global terrorist and the US had even declared a $10 million bounty on his head. Yet, Saeed continues to work in tandem with the Pakistani army and intelligence stealthily in infiltrating terror-trained men into India to perpetrate terror.

That Saeed is allowed a free rein in Pakistan is as good a sign as there can be of not only Pakistani but even American hypocrisy. When Saeed engineered the Mumbai terror attacks, he was at the head of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. To hoodwink the world, he changed the name of his outfit to Jamaat-ud-Dawa to make it seem that Lashkar had been wound up. While India must continue to press the US for action against Saeed, it must step up its campaign for exposing Hafiz Saeed in international forums and in other countries bilaterally. The manner in which the state is complicit in freeing Saeed the case for declaring Pakistan a terror state should be stronger than ever.