Hafiz Muhammad was born on 5 June 1950. He is a co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He is also the chief of Jama’at-ud-Da’wah.
He was born in Sargodha, Punjab. His full name is Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. He took his bachelor’s degree from University of Punjab, Lahore in 1970. He held two master degree from University of Punjab in 1972. He has done his specialization in Arabic language from Jamia Malik Saud (King Saud University- KSA). His father’s name is Kamal-ud-din. He was farmer in Sargodha. In 1987, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, along with Abdullah Azzam, founded Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad, a group with roots in the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadis.
He has one son named Talha Saeed and two daughters. He has two wives, Maimoona Saeed and the second is not known yet.
Hafiz Saeed’s son named Talha Saeed
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was founded in 1987 by Hafiz Saeed, Abdullah Azzam and Zafar Iqbal in Afghanistan, with funding from Osama bin Laden. Its headquarters are in Muridke, near Lahore in Punjab province of Pakistan, and it is said that the group operates training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. In 1994, Saeed visited the United States and spoke at Islamic centers in Houston, Chicago and Boston.
In 2001 to 2002 Pakistan took Saeed into custody on 21 December 2001 due to an Indian government assertion that he was involved in the 13 December 2001 attack on the Lok Sabha. He was held until 31 March 2002, released, then taken back into custody on 15 May. He was placed under house arrest on 31 October 2002 after his wife Maimoona Saeed sued the province of Punjab and the Pakistan federal government for what she claimed was an illegal detention
In 2006 after the July 11, 2006 Mumbai train bombings, the provincial government of Punjab, Pakistan arrested him on 9 August 2006 and kept him under house arrest but he was released on 28 August 2006 after a Lahore High Court’s order. He was arrested again on the same day by the provincial government and was kept in a rest house in Sheikhupura. He was finally released after the Lahore High Court’s order on 17 October 2006.
In 2008 to 2009 after the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Indian govt submitted a formal request to the UN Council to put the group Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed on the list of individuals and organizations sanctioned by the United Nations for association with terrorism. India has accused the organization and its leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, of being virtually interchangeable with Lashkar-e-Taiba.
On 10 December 2008, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed denied a link between LeT and JuD in an interview with Pakistan’s Geo television stating that “no Lashkar-e-Taiba man is in Jamaat-ud-Dawa and I have never been a chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Othernews.pk checked several sources but didn’t find any worthy information about early life of Hafiz Saeed not even the picture of his childhood. We also tried to find information about Jama’at-ud-Da’wah but enable to do so.
On 11 December 2008 Hafiz Muhammad was again arrested in his house when the United Nations declared Jama’at-ud-Da’sswah to be a LEJ front. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was held in house arrest under the Maintenance of Public Order law, which allows authorities to detain temporarily individuals deemed likely to create disorder, until early June 2009 when the Lahore High Court, deeming the containment to be unconstitutional, ordered Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to be released. India quickly expressed its disappointment with the decision. On 6 July 2009, the Pakistani government filed an appeal of the court’s decision. Deputy Attorney General Shah Khawar told the Associated Press that “Hafiz Saeed at liberty is a security threat.”
On 25 August 2009, Interpol issued a red notice against Hafiz Saeed, along with Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, in response to Indian requests for his extradition.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was again placed under house arrest by the Pakistani authorities in September 2009.
On 12 October 2009, the Lahore High Court quashed all cases against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and set him free. The court also notified that Jama’at-ud-Da’wah is not a banned organisation and can work freely in Pakistan. Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, one of two judges hearing the case, observed “In the name of terrorism we cannot brutalize the law. On 11 May 2011. India publicly published a list of its 50 most wanted terrorists hiding in Pakistan. India believes Hafiz Saeed is a fugitive, but the Indian arrest warrant had no influence in Pakistan and presently has no effect on Saeed’s movements within Pakistan. Following the Lahore High Court’s ruling, Saeed has been moving freely around the country. For many years, India has demanded that Saeed be handed over but there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.
The United States declared two Lashkar-e-Tayyiba leaders Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry and Muhammad Hussein Gill specially designated global terrorists. The State Department also maintained LeT’s designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and added the following aliases to its listing of Let Jamaat-ud-dawa, Al-Anfal Trust, Tehrik-i-hurmat-i-Rasool, and Tehrik-i-tahafuz Qibla Awwal. The Department of Treasury said that LeT was responsible for the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Pakistani police have arrested Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) armed group and head of its Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD) humanitarian wing, intercepting him on his way to court in the central city of Gujranwala,
Saeed was arrested on Wednesday by a group of Counter Terrorism Department at the Kamoke toll plaza, about 50km north of Pakistan’s second city Lahore, JUD spokesman Nadeem Awan told Al Jazeera.
“The cases against him are all related to fundraising,” Awan said. “He is charged with terrorism financing.” The JUD said it would challenge the arrest in court and apply for bail for Saeed. “We are going to the High Court, and we will continue to use legal means to fight the injustice against us, and we believe the courts will support us,” Awan said.
Saeed, who founded LET but says he has played no role in the group since 2001, is accused by neighboring India of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people.
LET is known for attacking Indian security forces and government targets, mainly in the disputed region of Kashmir but also in other parts of the country.
Pakistan has been facing increasing pressure to crackdown on armed groups operating on its soil since 2017, when it was placed on a watch-list by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a 39-member inter-governmental body that monitors curbs on terrorism financing and money laundering. FATF will make a final adjudication on whether to blacklist Pakistan, a move that could isolate the country from the international economy, in October.
In January 2013, India’s then Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde released a statement on the alleged existence of Hindu terrorism as well as the existence of Hindu terror camps on Indian soil, being run and organized by the BJP and the RSS.
In September 2014, Saeed accused India of “water terrorism. Though there was flood crisis in India too, Saeed blamed India for flood crisis in Pakistan. In several tweets on social media he said, “Indian government discharged water in rivers without notification & has given false information; an act of open mischief,” “India has used water to attack Pakistan, We are in state of War. India’s water aggression must be taken to the UN security council.
In April 2012, the United States announced a bounty of $10 million on Saeed for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 164 civilians. While India supported the US move, there were protests against it in Pakistan.
India considers Saeed most wanted terrorist because of his ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba and his alleged involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, and the 2001 Indian Parliament attack. Saeed is listed on the NIA Most Wanted list and India has banned his organizations LET and JUD as terrorist organizations. The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Russia and Australia have also banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.
