Has Hafiz Saeed replaced Dawood as Pakistan's blue-eyed boy?
When we were young, our parents forgave us for almost every mistake we made, since we were still in the learning phase. But as we grew older, we were taught by professors and parents alike, that if we do it for the first time, it's called a mistake, second time a fault, third time a blunder or "gunaah" in Hindi, but unfortunately if the same mistake is committed more than 3 times, we never got the definition as to what it should be called. Probably, Pakistan has the answer to it.
Hardly a week after the sixth anniversary of the 26/11 attacks, Pakistan has again demonstrated its dreadful repugnance for maintaining friendly relations with India. In a horrendous act which has shocked many, Pakistan Railways has decided to run two special trains for transporting people for the two day congregation of 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed's Jama'at Ud Da'wah in Lahore. JuD, accused of multiple bombings and attacks in India, has been declared as a terrorist organisation by India, US, UK, Russia, European Union and Australia.
Hafiz Saeed, who founded Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has a ten million dollar bounty on him for his alleged role in the Mumbai attacks. Inspite of submitting strong evidence and documents which cement LeT's definite role in the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan has repeatedly failed to perform and deliver on its claim of rooting out terrorism. Probably more worse than this is the fact that Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which promises to transform and change Pakistan, has also postponed their long planned "Block Lahore" event on JuD's request.
Hafiz's previous subversive acts such as organizing anti-India rallies, burning Indian flags and calling the Kashmir floods as an act of "water terrorism" by India, have failed to prompt Pakistan to take any action. Besides not taking any distinct actions, Pakistan has even gone to the ghastly extent of providing grant-in-aid of more than Rs 6.1 crore in its budget for fiscal 2013-14, for "Markaz-e-Taiba", the largest centre of the JuD, and also allocated Rs 35 crore for setting up a "Knowledge Park" at the centre and other development initiatives.
It strongly appears that Hafiz Saeed has replaced Dawood Ibrahim as the blue eyed boy of Pakistan. Having been away from the limelight for quite some time now, Dawood seems to have outlived his utility.
An official statement from the Indian government on Pakistan's impudent act is awaited, but anticipating criticism from India, Pakistan has already released a statement saying that "The Railways has a uniform policy for everyone. Pay and hire a train. Two special trains will be run for JuD congregation but not free of cost". Even if paid for by JuD, this act again proves that Pakistan will continue to resort to perfidy.
By providing undue special patronage and support to Hafiz, Pakistan seems to have retributed Modi's snub to Nawaz Sharif at the SAARC Summit in Nepal.