Srinagar
Former Pakistan president and Chief of Army Staff, General Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday said that he is “fond of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed” and is the “biggest supporter” of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its actions in Kashmir.
Speaking to Pakistani news channel ARY News from London, Musharraf said, “I am the biggest supporter of Lashkar-e-Taiba and I know the LeT and JuD people like me.” He told the channel that he had met Saeed recently.
Musharraf said the LeT “was not involved” in the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, but that he has “always been in favor of their action in Kashmir”.
“The LeT has been the biggest force in pressuring the Indian Army in Kashmir,” he said.
Saeed, a United Nations-designated terrorist, walked free from house arrest last week after an order from the Lahore high court. The US and India had reacted sharply to the verdict. In the interview on Tuesday, Musharraf claimed that India and the US got together to get the LeT “declared terrorists”.
When asked that his government had banned the LeT in Pakistan in 2002, after the attack on the Indian Parliament, Musharraf said he didn’t know much about Saeed then. “We had banned LeT because the situation was different at that time. We were moving towards peace and as such I thought we should reduce ‘mujahids’ and increase political dialogue and frankly I had very less knowledge about him,” said Musharraf.
