Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images Chief of the Pakistan's outlawed Islamic hardliner Jamaat ud Dawa and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, center, arrives to attend funeral prayers.
ABC News has just reported that the terror leader blamed for a 2008 massacre that killed nearly 200 people taunted the U.S. government at a press conference today, saying that if anyone wants to collect the $10 million bounty on his head he will be in Lahore, Pakistan tomorrow.
"I am here, I am visible," said Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the Pakistani-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the U.S. and India blames for the 2008 Mumbai massacre. "America should give that reward money to me."
"I will be in Lahore tomorrow. America can contact me whenever it wants to," said Saeed. He also expressed surprise that the U.S. did not know where he was, offered to face charges in an American court, and said America had "gone blind" because of its hatred of Islam.
The U.S. placed a $10 million bounty on Saeed's head Monday, and also offered up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Saeed's brother-in-law, who is the deputy leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Saeed, who allegedly has support within Pakistan's intelligence community, has maintained a high public profile inside Pakistan, and the U.S. government said it had offered the reward because of his "brazen" appearances.
The bounty, placed on the State Department's Rewards for Justice website late Monday, says Saeed "is suspected of masterminding numerous terrorist attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks." Ten gunmen took part in the multi-day assault, which took the lives of more than 170 people, including six Americans. The lone surviving attacker, who faces a death penalty, has accused Saeed of hatching the plot. The award makes Saeed the second most-wanted on the U.S. terror list; al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is worth a $25 million reward.
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