Here it is modified and extended.
Reports emerging from Pakistan says Hafiz Saeed is under
house arrest in Lahore and the police is raiding his terror front
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) facilities, that operate under the garb of charity. In a
video clip circulating in Pakistan's social media circles, Hafiz Saeed can be
seen ranting against India, the US with his favourite Kashmir rant. In the clip
he says to his supporters that today's developments will take him further to
his goals.
Earlier in the day, a Dunya News report, quoting Chaudhry
Nisar Ali Khan, Pakistan's Federal Minister for Interior, had said that
Pakistan would tomorrow spell out the course of action it is going to take
against Hafiz Saeed and JuD. Nisar said JuD which was declared a terrorist
outfit by the US last year and was under observation in Pakistan since 2010.
According to the Dunya News report, Pakistan is going to take action against
Jamaat in line with the UN requirements. Now that Hafiz Saeed has put been
under house arrest and a crackdown on JuD facilities is going on, let's see
what Pakistan comes with tomorrow.
In December 2008, UN Security Council, under its Resolution
1267, imposed sanctions on JuD and Hafiz Saeed for supporting Al Qaeda and
Taliban. India had named Hafiz Saeed, LeT and JuD as the perpetrators of the
series of terrorists attacks in Mumbai in November 2008. Since then it has been
an unending drama of Hafiz Saeed being put under house arrest or detained
cursorily before being set free even if the US declared a bounty of $10 million
on his head in 2012.
Let alone Hafiz Saeed, all other names including Zakiur
Rehman Lakhvi, the Mumbai attacks mastermind or Masood Azhar, the Pathakot
airbase attack mastermind or many others on India's most wanted list, alleged
for perpetrating countless terror acts in India, are free and even respected
names in Pakistan. When international pressure demands, Pakistan does the
routine sham of shielding behind its judicial process that had set Hafiz Saeed
free of all terrorism charges in 2009.
It is not the first time that reports from Pakistan on
banning JuD have come out. This is a regular spectacle, as recent as November
2016. Every time Pakistan clarifies that JuD has not been banned and as per the
UN requirements, is under observation.
But this time, the crackdown on JuD and Hafiz Saeed has come
out after the US warning that Pakistan could be added to the list of the banned
countries on the US immigration list. Donald Trump administration has put a ban
on immigrants from seven Muslim majority nations that are 'most identifiable
with dangerous terrorism taking place in their country' - Syria, Somalia,
Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Sudan. Reince Priebus, the White House Chief of
Staff, has said that countries like Pakistan that are 'having problems similar
to those seven nations', can be added to the list in future.
That may have set alarms bells ringing in Pakistan. Though
Pakistan, a habitual offender, backstabber and master of doublespeak when it
comes to using terror as a policy tool, cannot be trusted, even if its Interior
Minister says that action on JuD was pending, a sense of panic can be seen when
we see Hafiz Saeed's Twitter feed and his video clip.
As Twitter doesn't allow designated terrorists like Hafiz
Saeed on its platform and blocks their Twitter accounts, they keep on changing
their Twitter handles. @HMSaeedOfficial is one of the Twitter handles being
used by Hafiz Saeed. Saeed tweeted today from this account, "We knew this
would happen when we declared 2017 the year of #Kashmir. If I am arrested,
millions will continue to raise voice for #Kashmir."
@HMSaeedOfficial
We knew this would happen when we declared 2017 the year of
#Kashmir. If I am arrested, millions will continue to raise voice for #Kashmir
If we are banned for raising voice for Kashmir, then we
don't care about any such ban or restrictions.
The recent reports of JuD Ban are due to Indian pressure. In
case of any such ban, we will go to
courts for justice
This can well be a strategy to garner support and pressurize
the Pakistan's government to prevent from taking any strong measure against the
terror mastermind or can be, again, an elaborate sham in collusion with the
Pakistan's ruling establishment and the ISI to show the world that Pakistan, at
last, is going to crackdown on terror, especially after the US warning of
putting it on the immigration ban list. And if it is happening so now, it can
well be the first in the series of sham crackdowns.
The first option looks more likely that Saeed may be made a
scapegoat (remember the US bounty on Saeed) as Saeed initially deleted his
tweet from @HMSaeedOfficial page. But after some hours, he again posted it
along with other tweets that show his fear of being banned. Blaming India for
reports on JuD ban, he wrote that If they were banned for raising voice for
Kashmir, then they didn't care about any such ban or restrictions and they
would approach the court.
To add to Hafiz Saeed's fear, Pakistan's The News today
published a report, which says that the US has clearly told Pakistan to act
against JuD after JuD's name prominently figured in the latest report of the
Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering or else Pakistan would be put on the
list of blacklisted countries in the International Cooperative Review Group
(ICRG). That will make it necessary for Pakistan to put a formal request each
time it goes about transacting any business through any of the international
financial institutions.
This is an early January report, before Donald Trump's took
over as the US President and now that the most clear warning to Pakistan has
come from Trump's chief of staff, the writing looks clear on the wall for
Pakistan. It is for Pakistan to decide which way it wants to go. Meanwhile,
according the same The News report, Hafiz Saeed has adopted a new name for his
outfit, Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Kashmir.
©SantoshChaubey