Hafiz Saeed Petitions UN to Remove Him from List of Terrorists

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed wants the United Nations to remove his name from the list of designated terrorists. Saeed’s lawyer also said that he filed for de-listing while he was under house arrest in Pakistan.

His lawyer Navid Rasul Mirza of Mirza and Mirza confirmed that Saeed filed for de-listing, the Hindustan Times reported. “I cannot give details of the petition. I don’t have the permission of my client to speak on this,” Navid’s son, Barrister Haider Rasul Mirza, who is representing Saeed in the UN, told the publication.

“I have been engaged by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed (“the petitioner”), to submit on his behalf this de-listing request for the removal of his name from the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions list being maintained by the United Nations Security Council’s ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, pursuant to the United Nations Security Council Resolutions…” the petition reads, according to the newspaper.

Saeed was put on the list on Dec. 10, 2008 by the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee “as being associated with Lashkar-e-Tayyiba and Al Qaida for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts of activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” both entities,” according to Interpol.

The UN sanctions list also said that his house is in Mohalla Johar, Lahore, Pakistan. He has been acknowledged as the leader of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba by the Interpol and the UN Security Council.

According to Interpol, he “traveled to Afghanistan during the late 1970s or the early 1980s to receive militant training. There he came into contact with Dr. Abdullah Azzam, the mentor of Usama bin Laden and other fighters in Afghanistan. In 2005, Saeed determined where graduates of a LeT camp in Pakistan should be sent to fight, and personally organized the infiltration of LeT militants into Iraq during a trip to Saudi Arabia. In 2006, Saeed oversaw the management of a terrorist camp, including funding of the camp. Saeed also arranged for a LeT operative to be sent to Europe as LeT’s European fundraising coordinator. He established a LeT office in Quetta, Pakistan in June 2006 to assist the Taliban in the conduct of their operations in Afghanistan.”

He is considered the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. The three-day attack led to the death of 166 people.

For de-listing, an individual has to furnish the following:

1. explanation as to why the designation does not or no longer meets the listing criteria (through countering the reasons for listing as stated in the list entry for that particular individual or entity);
2. the designee’s current occupation and/or activities, and any other relevant information, such as information on assets;
3. any documentation supporting the request can be referred to and/or attached together with the explanation of its relevance, where appropriate.

Saeed had been under house arrest since January and was released by a court in Pakistan last week due to lack of evidence. The United States, France and India criticized Pakistan’s decision to set him free.

Saeed’s petition also comes in the wake of his political ambitions. A JuD member was reported to have said last week that Saeed could contest elections as the leader of the Milli Muslim League.