JuD chief says group has no links with al-Qaida, Taliban

Rezaul H Laskar

Islamabad, Feb 5 (PTI) Jamaat-ud-Dawah, the front
organisation of LeT which is blamed for the Mumbai attacks,
has written to the United Nations claiming that it was not
associated with the al-Qaida and Taliban and that the Security
Council's sanctions on it were "unjustified".

Though JuD chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed wrote the letter
to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on December 26 last year,
it was circulated among journalists here over the past few
days.

Moon arrived in Islamabad Wednesday for a day-long
visit, during which he asked Pakistan to fully cooperate with
India in probing the Mumbai attacks.

In his letter, Saeed described the restrictions
imposed by the UN Security Council on the Jamaat and its
leaders as being "detrimental" to the interests of Pakistan
and the people who were benefiting from the organisation's
"welfare activities".

Soon after the Mumbai attacks, the UN Security Council
banned the Jamaat and included four LeT leaders in a list of
terrorists subject to sanctions.

Saeed claimed he had "no connection" to the Mumbai
attacks.

He also claimed the UN had acted against the Jamaat
without giving the organisation an opportunity to defend
itself.

Diplomatic sources told PTI that Saeed's letter could
not be considered by the UN as it was not endorsed by the
Pakistan government.

Saeed and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman
Lakhvi, who has been blamed for masterminding the November 26
Mumbai strikes, were among the four leaders.

Pakistan's interior ministry chief Rehman Malik has
said the Jamaat has been banned though no formal notification
has been issued in this regard.

Several top Jamaat and LeT leaders, including Saeed,
were put under house arrest while over 120 other activists
were detained.

In the letter, Saeed claimed the UN Security Council
acted with "unprecedented haste" while declaring the Jamaat a
terrorist group and listing the four leaders as terrorists
subject to sanctions.

He implied the Security Council's action was the
outcome of "disinformation of (an) Indian lobby".

Noting that the UNSC Resolution 1267 only calls for
action against groups linked to al-Qaida and Taliban, Saeed
claimed the Jamaat is "neither an associate of al-Qaida (and)
Osama bin Laden nor the Taliban".

He claimed the UN Security Council's action also
went against the "independence and sovereignty of Pakistan".

Saeed also claimed he and his organisation had not
participated in financing, planning, facilitating or
perpetrating any activities in conjunction with al-Qaida or
Taliban. He claimed he had also never recruited anyone for the
two terror networks.

The letter urged the Pakistan government to initiate
diplomatic efforts to get Saeed and the Jamaat de-listed by
the UN Security Council. PTI RHL