THE FOUNDER of the Pakistan-based Islamist group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks who was hit on Tuesday (April 3) with a $10m (£6.28m) US government bounty said the move had come at the behest of arch-rivals India.
Washingtonhas offered the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which India and the US blame for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
The decision was announced by US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman announced the move in India on Monday (April 2).
“The action against me is also an act of terrorism and America is doing it on the behest of India which is making fool out of it,” Saeed told reporters.
He said the US had slapped him with the bounty because of a campaign he was leading to stop the Pakistani government reopening NATO and US supply routes to Afghanistan.
“The movement that we have organised after the formation of Defence of Pakistan Council is becoming very effective and it is impacting parliament’s decision about NATO supplies and this factor is disturbing for America and that is why they have announced a bounty on me,” he told reporters.
