LAHORE: The leader of a Pakistani Islamist organisation that was labelled a terror group and slapped with economic sanctions by the United States denied having any links to militancy yesterday and vowed to hold protests.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who is chief of Jamat-ud-Dawa (Organisation for Preaching), insisted his group was a charity and not a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant outfit which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
“Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has no link whatsoever with Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is a resistance wing in Kashmir,” he said.
“It is an independent Pakistani organisation taking part in the promotion of education and relief operations. It is only serving the Pakistani people,” added Saeed.
JuD is listed as an alias of LeT by the United Nations, which has also labelled Saeed an abettor of Al Qaeda and brought sanctions on him, though he has never been convicted of a crime inside Pakistan. AFP
