Author: Indrani Bagchi
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 6, 2012
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Raising-the-stakes/articleshow/12548727.cms

Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is a "powerful" man in Pakistan. He could, for instance, openly conduct fune-ral prayers for Osama bin Laden last year when all of Pakistan, including its alphabet soup of jihadists, was stunned into silence after the May 2 killing of the al-Qaida supremo in Abbottabad. Saeed recently told journalists that he and Osama bin Laden were buddies in Saudi Arabia, studying together under the same Salafi guru, Sheikh bin Baz. Bin Laden supplied the seed money for Saeed's headquarters in Muridke - a tidy sum of Rs 1 crore via his close associate, Abu Andar Rehman Sareshi. Terrorism expert Bruce Riedel says Saeed retained his close ties with bin Laden all the way until May 2011, as revealed by bin Laden's documents re-covered after his death.

Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is a "powerful" man in Pakistan. He could, for instance, openly conduct fune-ral prayers for Osama bin Laden last year when all of Pakistan, including its alphabet soup of jihadists, was stunned into silence after the May 2 killing of the al-Qaida supremo in Abbottabad. Saeed recently told journalists that he and Osama bin Laden were buddies in Saudi Arabia, studying together under the same Salafi guru, Sheikh bin Baz. Bin Laden supplied the seed money for Saeed's headquarters in Muridke - a tidy sum of Rs 1 crore via his close associate, Abu Andar Rehman Sareshi. Terrorism expert Bruce Riedel says Saeed retained his close ties with bin Laden all the way until May 2011, as revealed by bin Laden's documents re-covered after his death.

Having said that, Saeed occupies a special space in the ISI-sponsored jihad firmament. Saeed has never attacked the Pakistani state or its interests, and he is not a sectarian leader. He has been willing to be used against India and America as and when the ISI has asked. LeT's big stars - Majors Khurram, Haroon, Abdul Rehman etc are all ex-Pakistan army. David Headley, the LeT operative who now lives in a Chicago jail, told Indian investigators that Abdur Rehman alias Pasha, who runs LeT's so-called 'Karachi project' against India had his outfit christened "Jund ul Fida" by bin Laden himself. Syed Saleem Shahzad, a Pakistani journalist with unique access to al-Qaida wrote how Rehman, Haroon and Khurram both moved seamlessly from LeT into al-Qaida, and it was in this capacity that Rehman and Haroon planned the 26/11 attacks.

 What both Shahzad and the bin Laden documents seem to suggest is the deepening interoperability between LeT and al-Qaida. After bin Laden's death, his mantle shifted to Ayman Al Zawahiri. But who has seen Zawahiri? Consider Saeed instead - a fiery and persuasive terror leader, equally deserving of the same mantle, free to roam in Pakistan, having political potential and turning thousands towards extremist leanings. His organisation may not be called al-Qaida, but it's probably more dangerous.