Trump hails arrest of Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan
SRINAGAR, (PTK): US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed the arrest of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed — chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) — who India and Washington accuse of being the mastermind of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks and have declared a global terrorist.
Trump, who didn’t name Saeed, said: “After a ten-year search, the so-called ‘mastermind’ of the Mumbai Terror attacks has been arrested in Pakistan. Great pressure has been exerted over the last two years to find him!”
Saeed — who has a $10 million US bounty on his head — was taken into custody earlier in the day by counter-terrorism forces in a terror financing case. He has been sent to prison on judicial remand.Trump’s tweet comes days before Prime Minister Imran Khan’s scheduled visit to Washington on July 22.
The tweet refers to a “10-year search” although Saeed’s whereabouts were known to the authorities in Pakistan.
Saeed was previously placed under house arrest in January 2017. He, however, was released in November the same year after a court rejected the government’s plea for a 60-day extension in his house arrest.
