With £6 million bounty on head, Pakistan militant taunts U.S.

By Michael Georgy and Qasim Nauman

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Who wants to be a

millionaire?

In Pakistan, all you have to do is give the United States information leading to the arrest or

conviction of Hafiz Saeed – an Islamist leader whose whereabouts are usually not a mystery.

Saeed is suspected of masterminding the attack on India’s financial capital Mumbai in 2008 that

killed 166 people, including six Americans.

U.S. authorities placed a bounty on Monday of up to $10 million (6 million

pounds) on Saeed, but on Wednesday he was openly wandering across Pakistan’s military garrison town of Rawalpindi, hanging

out with some of the most anti-American characters in the country.

“This is a laughable, absurd announcement. Here I

am in front of everyone, not hiding in a cave,” Saeed told a news conference at a hotel – a mere 40-minute drive from the

U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and just across from the headquarters of Pakistan’s army, recipient of billions of dollars in U.S.

aid.

“Now that he has a price on his head, for this money anyone is willing to do anything,” said Javed, a 55-year-old

government employee who declined to give his full name.

“Once people see the money there is no saving him, only God

can save him.”

In Washington, U.S. officials said the decision to offer the $10 million (6 million pounds) reward

under the State Department’s longstanding “Rewards for Justice” program came after months of discussions among U.S. agencies

involved in counter-terrorism.

The $10 million figure signifies major U.S. interest in Saeed. Only three other

militants, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar, fetch that high a bounty. There is a $25 million bounty on the head of al

Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

At the same time it targeted Saeed, the U.S. government also offered a smaller reward

– $2 million – for Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, whom it said was the second in command of the militant group founded by Saeed,

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

As with many militants sought by the United States – and unlike Saeed – Makki’s whereabouts

are unknown to U.S. authorities. The bounty would be paid for information leading to his location.

The announcement of

a reward for Saeed comes at a time of heightened tension between the United States and Pakistan and is likely to increase

pressure on Pakistan to take action against the former Arabic scholar. It is also likely to please India, the target of

numerous LeT attacks.

Released from house arrest in 2009, Saeed is a free man in Pakistan, a strategic U.S. ally and

one of the world’s most unstable countries.

The United States, which sees Saeed as a major security threat with links

to al Qaeda, is hoping the bounty will trigger a stampede of Pakistanis who come forward with information that could lead to

his arrest and conviction.

Pakistani officials say Saeed and his organisation, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, have been cleared by

Pakistani courts.

They say they don’t understand what all the fuss is about and complain the Americans are acting

like cowboys.

“The United States is acting like it’s Clint Eastwood,” said a senior security official, speaking on

condition of anonymity.

“It’s as if they just want to ride a horse into Pakistan and just drag people like him

away.”

Another security official nodded in agreement while a television repeatedly showed footage of

Saeed.

“What would happen if we put a bounty on President (Barack) Obama’s head because American drone strikes

sometimes kill Pakistani civilians?”

The drone strikes, which the United States regards as a highly effective and

accurate weapon against militants, are deeply unpopular in Pakistan.

STREET SUPPORT

Saeed, a short, bearded man

with a quiet but intense demeanour and henna-dyed hair, has turned the drone strikes and other explosive issues like the

presence of Western troops in Afghanistan into a rallying cry against the United States.

That has won him support on

Pakistan’s streets.

“He wants the drone strikes to stop. He wants the bloodshed in Afghanistan to end,” said a senior

police official in Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi.

“Hafiz Saeed isn’t saying anything wrong. In fact, he’s a

patriot.”

Some Pakistanis could not understand why the bounty was issued while Saeed is in plain view.

His

capture may ultimately depend on cooperation from Pakistan, often accused by the West of supporting militant groups. Pakistan

denies the charges.

“It is unlikely that anything will come out of this. You put bounties on people who are hiding,

not those walking around free,” said businessman Haris Chaudhry. “It’s ridiculous.”

Saeed, 61, founded LeT in the

1990s and it became one of South Asia’s best-funded militant organisations.

He abandoned its leadership after India

accused it of being behind an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001.

India has long called for Saeed’s

capture, blaming the LeT for the Mumbai carnage. He denies any wrongdoing and links to militants.

The former professor

of Islamic studies seemed unfazed by the bounty.

As stern-faced bodyguards with AK-47 assault rifles kept a close

watch, he ridiculed the Americans during his press conference at The Flashman’s Hotel.

He was flanked by some of

Pakistan’s most hard line Islamists who all belong to an alliance of groups campaigning for a break in ties with the United

States and India.

They included Sami-ul-Haq, a cleric best known as “the father of the Taliban” for his historical

ties to the Afghan militant movement. Another member, Hamid Gul, a former head of Pakistan’s intelligence service, was also

present.

On the edge of Islamabad, a Pakistani intelligence officer who has handled militant groups for decades, shook

his head as he pondered the U.S. reward.

“If the guy who decided to do this could get a job in the State Department,

then I could be the president of the United States,” the chuckling operative, wearing a suit and puffing on a cigarette,

said.

“God bless America.”