ISLAMABAD: Reacting to the US bounty on Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Pakistan on Wednesday said the United States must provide “concrete evidence” if it wanted Islamabad to act against Saeed.Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said Islamabad would rather be presented with evidence about Hafiz Saeed than have a public discussion on the matter. “In a democratic country like Pakistan, where judiciary is independent, evidence against anyone must withstand judicial scrutiny,” the spokesman added in a statement.
The United States on Monday slapped a $10 million bounty on Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, the banned organisation accused of masterminding the carnage that killed 166 people in Mumbai four years ago. The reward was announced by US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman in India on Monday.
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Saeed lives openly in Pakistan and has spent recent months making a number of high-profile appearances at demonstrations calling on the government not to reopen NATO supply lines to Afghanistan, which have been closed since November.
He mocked the idea of offering a bounty for someone who lives so openly. “Americans seriously lack information. Don’t they know where I go and where I live and what I do?” he said. “These rewards are usually announced for people who are hiding in mountains or caves. I wish the Americans would give this reward money to me. The US decision is aimed at silencing the Defence Council of Pakistan and to ensure resumption of supplies through backdoor channels and increase interference in Pakistan,” he said.