Linking Kasab to us a conspiracy: JuD chief Saeed

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the chief of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah accused of involvement in the November 26 Mumbai attacks, has claimed that the linking of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested for the attacks, to his group was part of a "conspiracy" against it.

Released from house arrest only last month after being detained in December, 2008 in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, Saeed made the remarks while addressing a Friday prayer congregation at a mosque in Gujranwala in Pakistan's Punjab province on Saturday.

He claimed that the UN blacklisted the JuD at India's request following the Mumbai attacks.

Saeed, who claims that JuD is a charitable body, went on to question India's defence spending, saying New Delhi's military budget was equivalent to Pakistan's total annual budget. He also raised the bogey that Pakistan faced an "existential threat" from across the eastern border.

The JuD chief, also the founder of Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant group, alleged that the Pentagon had a "secret agenda" to disintegrate Pakistan and the country's current rulers had no capacity to defend it.

Pakistan's rulers should desist from following former President Pervez Musharraf's policies, he added.

Saeed also claimed that NATO forces would have to leave Afghanistan by next year.

The JuD chief and several of his aides were put under house arrest in December last year after the Mumbai attacks. They were all subsequently freed.

Saeed and his close aide Col (retired) Nazir Ahmed were released on the orders of the Lahore High Court in June. The federal and Punjab governments have challenged the High Court's order in the Supreme Court.

Kasab, the only survivor of a group of 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai in November last year, recently confessed to his involvement in the assault in a court in India's financial hub.

He also told the court about his training in Pakistan and his links with LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who is among five persons facing trial in a Pakistani anti-terror court in connection with the 26/11 attacks.