Mumbai Attacks: Indian False Narrative about Hafiz Saeed
By Sajjad Shaukat
On November 26, 2008, several persons were killed in the simultaneous terror attacks in Mumbai. Without any investigation, Indian high officials and media had started blaming Pakistan.
In this respect, Indian top officials and TV channels had remarked that Indian Mujahideen and the banned Lashkar-e-Tayba (LeT) based in Pakistan, Hafiz Muhammad and country’s primary intelligence agency ISI were behind the Mumbai terror attacks.
With the assistance of Indian secret agency RAW, Indian investigators fabricated a false narrative that 10 terrorists who executed Mumbai carnage came in a boat from Karachi and were in contact with the members of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba.
Availing the pretext of the Mumbai catastrophe, New Delhi had suspended the process of ‘composite dialogue’ with Pakistan in wake of its highly provocative actions like mobilization of troops. Islamabad had also taken defensive steps to meet any Indian prospective aggression or surgical strikes. But, India failed in implementing its aggressive plans, because Pakistan also possesses atomic weapons.
In fact, Mumbai attack was just another false flag operation of Indian establishment to gain sympathies of world community and defame Pakistan in the comity of nations. The whole drama was staged to accuse Pakistan and its intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
It is notable that renowned thinkers, Hobbes, Machiavelli and Morgenthau opine that sometimes, rulers act upon immoral activities like deceit, fraud and falsehood to fulfill their countries’ selfish aims. But, such a sinister politics was replaced by new trends such as fair-dealings, reconciliation and economic development. Regrettably, India is still following past politics in modern era.
It is of particular attention that in July, 2013, the Indian former home ministry and ex-investigating officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror attacks in Mumbai in November 26, 2008 and assault on Indian Parliament in January 12, 2001 were carried out by the Indian government to strengthen anti-terrorism laws.
It has clearly proved that Indian secret agencies; particularly RAW arranged coordinated terror attacks in Mumbai and orchestrated that drama only to defame Pakistan in the world, but also to fulfill a number of other sinister aims.
Similarly, with the backing of the US, India has continued to involve Hafiz Muhammad Saeed-President of the religio-political party Milli Muslim League in the Mumbai terror assaults.
In order to pamper India, in April, 2012, the United States offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the conviction of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.
As regards the Mumbai mayhem, while fully cooperating with New Delhi, Pakistan had took action against the banned organisations, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD). In this context, Pakistan’s interior ministry had not only lodged FIR against some suspected persons, but also detained many individuals for investigation. But Pakistan’s Lahore High Court had released Hafiz Saeel on bail, saying that there was no evidence against him in connection with the Mumbai catastrophe.
It is notable that Article 11 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly grants that everyone charged with a penal offence has the rights to be presumed innocent until proved guilty.
But, India declared Hafiz Muhammad Saeed as main accused in the Mumbai attacks episode of 2008. Following the dictates of India, the US and later the UN also declared Hafiz Muhammad Saeed as a terrorist. Pakistan showed its complete willingness and intent to cooperate with India on the issue of judicial probe of the incident. However, India remained reluctant and could not share credible proofs of involvement of Hafiz Saeed in the incident. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and related organizations were kept under constant watch by Pakistani authorities and he was ultimately place under house arrest in late January 2017.
Meanwhile, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed moved a petition in Lahore High court against house arrest. The petition said, “Imprisonment without trial and conviction is prima facie unlawful and unconstitutional”. Ultimately, three judges bench ordered the release of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in November 2017 after 10 months of house arrest. India has since then opened all propaganda tools to malign Pakistan as a state in the release of Hafiz Saeed.
After his release, Hafiz Muhammad petitioned the United Nations to remove his name from its global terrorist list. Saeed’s petition was routed through Mirza and Mirza, a Lahore-based law firm.
And through his lawyer, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has already approached the International Court of Justice ICJ to declare him innocent against the illegitimate demands of America, India and Israel who have been insisting upon for his arrest and trail.
However, another important aspect of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed’s case is his status of terrorist and head money. In this connection, Hafiz Saeed is not an unknown figure, nor he is in hiding himself. He is a well-known religious scholar and a peace-loving citizen of Pakistan. He is also head of the political party Milli Muslim League.
When, he interacts with the media, his location is also known. US’s reward for justice programme does no declare, but only suspects Hafiz Muhammad Saeed as terrorist. The programme, in fact, asks masses to help bring a proof or tip against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in order to prove him a terrorist. In the recent past, in a significant development, America excluded Lashkar-e-Taiba from organizations on which Pakistan was asked to take action under the US National Defence Authorization Act 2018.
As a matter of fact, the fault of Hafiz Saeed is that in his various speeches and statements, he has exposed the Zionist designs of the US-led New Delhi and Tel Aviv who want to destabilize and denuclearize Pakistan through their intelligence agencies American CIA, Indian RAW and Israel Mossad. By arranging terrorism-related attacks which has occurred in Pakistan, and still continues from time to time, these agencies want to weaken Pakistan.
Nevertheless, India’s failure to share any proofs with Islamabad regarding the Mumbai terror attacks and failure to provide evidence against Hafiz Saeed indicate the actual story of her propaganda.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has become the main scapegoat India; New Delhi uses him to divert attention of the international community away from atrocities, she has been committing against innocent Kashmiris.
In these terms, implicating Pakistan and its citizens like Hafiz Muhammad Saeed without proofs will only spoil chances of a peaceful and just solution of the Kashmir dispute and other bilateral issues. This is what New Delhi wants, as in the past, by availing various false flag terror attacks; she has suspended the dialogue process with Islamabad.
