Saeed calls for jihad to 'free Kashmir'

Continuing his anti-India rant, the chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, has now said that 'jihad' is the only way to free Jammu and Kashmir from the "Indian yoke". Saeed, who India blames for masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks, made the remarks while addressing a meeting of JuD workers at the Jamia Masjid Mukarram at Daska in Punjab province on Monday.

He said the sacrifices of "Kashmiri martyrs would soon become fruitful and the sun of freedom of Kashmir will rise soon". Increasing human rights violations, custodial killings and "genocide of innocent Kashmiris" by Indian security forces, he said, were "enough to shake the conscience of the international community".

Saeed was put under house arrest for about six months after the UN Security Council banned the JuD in the wake of the Mumbai attacks but was freed on the orders of the Lahore High Court last year.

Even as India insists that Saeed, who was the founder of Lashkar-e-Tayiba, masterminded the Mumbai terror attack, the Pakistan government has ruled out his arrest, saying India has not provided any evidence linking him to the incident.

Saeed, who has been lashing out at India in recent months, had blamed New Delhi for perpetuating what he called "water terrorism" against Pakistan, and said the next war between India and Pakistan could be fought over water.