Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has said he likes Mumbai 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed even as he backed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) involvement in Kashmir. (ANI image)

Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf has said he likes Mumbai 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed even as he backed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) involvement in Kashmir. Musharraf said he was always in favor of action in Kashmir and of suppressing Indian Army in Kashmir. Terming, Saeed, JuD and LeT as the biggest forces, Musharraf said that India got them declared as terrorists by partnering with US. He also asserted that in Kashmir, it was always between ‘we’ and India. Musharraf said he is the biggest supporter of LeT and JuD and claimed the terror outfits also like him. In a startling revelation, Musharraf said he has met Saeed. Musharraf’s statement comes after Saeed was released in Pakistan.

Notably, Saeed has filed a petition in the UN seeking removal of his name from the list of designated terrorists on the ground that none of the allegations against him – either related to terrorism or otherwise – has been proved in the Pakistani courts. The banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head, who carries a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, walked free on Friday after the Pakistan government decided against detaining him further in any other case. He was under house arrest since January this year.

Lahore-based law firm – Mirza and Mirza Law Associates – has filed the petition on behalf of Saeed in the UN. Supreme Court Advocate Navid Rasul Mirza, the owner of this law firm, said that his law firm had recently filed the petition in the UN.

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“My law firm has filed the petition on Hafiz Saeed’s behalf at the UN seeking removal of his name from its list of designated terrorists. My son Haider Rasul who is director of this firm is looking after this case,” he said.

Saeed, who is accused of having masterminded the November 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, was placed on the terrorism black list by the United Nations under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.

To a question about any progress in the case so far, Mirza said: “We have just filed the petition.”

Mirza was Additional Advocate General of Punjab Government (1993-1996) and Prosecutor General for the National Accountability Bureau, a government anti-graft body (2000-03).

This is the first time that Saeed has hired a law firm other than that of his permanent counsel Advocate A K Dogar.

“In Pakistan, all cases of the JuD chief are being handled by Dogar. This firm to pursue his case in the UN has been hired in consultation with Dogar,” a Jamaat-ud-Dawah office-bearer said.

The office-bearer said Saeed has decided to challenge the UN’s decision on the basis of different court decisions since 2009 in which no allegation – either related to terrorism or otherwise – has been proved in the Pakistani courts.