US names JuD as terror outfit, know its chief "Hafiz Saeed"

New Delhi: Tightening its noose around LeT, the United States on added its affiliates, including the Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JuD), to its list of designated terror organizations and slapped sanctions against two Pakistan-based LeT leaders. The State Department has amended Lashkar-e-Taiba's designations to add the aliases: Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Al-Anfal Trust, Tehrik-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool and Tehrik-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awwal, an official statement said.Simultaneously, the Department of the Treasury targeted the financial and leadership networks of LeT by designating Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry (Ahmad) and Muhammad Hussein Gill as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). The chief of this terror outfit JuD is Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, which operates mainly from Pakistan. He is a UN sanctioned terrorist.Know more about the amir of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah here :Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is a former professor of Arabic and Engineering, as well as the founding member of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a radical Ahl-e-Hadith Islamist organization, and its military branch, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. Saeed is suspected of masterminding numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 166 people. India has issued an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Saeed for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Lashkar-e-Tayyiba was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in December 2001. In April 2008, the United States designated Jamaat-ud-Dawa as a Foreign Terrorist Organization; similarly, the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa a terrorist organization in December 2008. In 1950, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was born in Sargodha, Punjab. His family lost 36 of its members when migrating from Shimla to Lahore during the Partition of India. He is married and his wife's name is Maimoona. General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq appointed Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to the Council on Islamic Ideology, and he later served as an Islamic Studies teacher at the University of Engineering and Technology (Lahore), Pakistan. He was sent to Saudi Arabia in the early 1980s by the university for higher studies where he met Saudi Sheikhs who were taking part in the Afghan jihad. They inspired him to join his colleague, Professor Zafar Iqbal, in taking an active role supporting the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. There he met some youth who later became his companions. In 1987 Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, along with Abdullah Azzam, founded Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad, a group with roots in the Jamait Ahl-e-Hadis. This organization spawned the jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1990, with the help of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence officers. Lashkar's primary target is the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. He is also quoted as saying, "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy." After the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, India submitted a formal request to the U.N. Security Council to put the group Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed on the list of individuals and organizations sanctioned by the United Nations for association with terrorism. India said that the close links between the organizations, as well as the 2,500 offices and 11 seminaries that Jamaat-ud-Dawa maintains in Pakistan, are of immediate concern with regard to their efforts to mobilize and orchestrate terrorist activities. On December 11, 2008 Hafiz Muhammed Saeed was again placed under house arrest when the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa to be an LeT front. On August 25, 2009 Interpol issued a Red Corner Notice against Hafiz Saeed, along with Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, in response to Indian requests for his extradition. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was again placed under house arrest by the Pakistani authorities in September 2009. On May 11, 2011, in an effort to place pressure on Pakistan, India publicly revealed a list of its 50 most wanted fugitives hiding in Pakistan. India believes Hafiz Saeed is a fugitive, but the Indian arrest warrant had no influence in Pakistan and presently has no effect on Saeed's movements within Pakistan. Following the Lahore High Court ruling, Saeed has been moving freely around the country. In keeping with Pakistani establishment's wishes, Lashkar has been keeping focus on India and Saeed is among those who are thought to have helped Pakistan in capturing important al-Qaeda members like Abu Zubaydah. Senior Pakistani officials have said that Saeed is helping in de-radicalization and rehabilitation of former extremists and that security is being provided to him because he could be targeted by militants who disapprove of Saeed's cooperation with Islamabad. In April 2012, the United States announced a bounty of $10 million on Hafeez Saeed, for his alleged role in 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Saeed stated that he had nothing to do with the Mumbai attacks and condemned them. When asked about the bounty Saeed replied, "I am living my life in the open and the US can contact me whenever they want." Hafiz Saeed has criticized Pakistani leaders and has stated that they should aspire to be more like British Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson. He had declared his admiration for the British Conservative Party along with several Tory MPs when he lodged a petition to the Lahore High Court calling for public officials in Pakistan to tone down their privileged lifestyles. According to The Daily Telegraph, Saeed wrote in the petition that while Pakistan's political elite were 'living like kings and princes in palatial government houses,' Britain's prime minister lived in a 'four-bedroom flat.' He added, 'When the sun never set on the British Empire, the chief executive of that great country lived in the same house of a few marlas in a small street. That is truly Islamic, that is like following the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet.' Hafiz Saeed offered aid to those Americans who were affected by Hurricane Sandy. His organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa was prepared to send volunteers, medicine, and food to those on the East Coast who were struggling to cope in the aftermath of the storm. Following his offer, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad rejected the offer and stated: "We respect the Islamic tradition of help to the needy but we can't take Hafiz Saeed's offer seriously."