DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Pakistani Islamist Leader Hafiz Saeed Mocks U.S. Over $10Million Bounty At News Conference
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 4, 2012: The founder of Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has described a $10m (£6.2m) bounty on his head - announced by the US on Tuesday - as "regrettable and misdirected".
In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Hafiz Saeed said that such rewards "are usually for those who live in caves and mountains".
Mr Saeed travels widely in Pakistan from his base in the city of Lahore.
He now heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) group, widely seen as a LeT front.
LeT is blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. The three-day rampage by 10 gunmen in November 2008 left 165 people dead. Nine of the attackers were also killed.
Local media on Wednesday quoted Pakistan interior ministry sources as saying that the government cannot proceed against Mr Saeed without "hard and undeniable evidence that can withstand judicial scrutiny".
He has consistently denied any suggestion that either he or JuD - which he says is a charity - played any role in militant violence.
Pakistan arrested LeT's senior leaders after the Mumbai attacks. But most of them, including Mr Saeed, were later freed on appeal.
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