Zeenews Bureau
Islamabad, Dec 05: Even as international pressure on Pakistan government has increased manifolds to take decisive action against terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, its chief Hafeez Saeed has reportedly denied any hand in last week’s terror attack in Mumbai.
According to the report, Pakistan-based Saeed has categorically refuted claims by the Indian government that LeT was behind the Mumbai terror attack.
In an interview to the Indian media, he said that his organisation is not involved in the incident.
LeT chief Hafeez has alleged that Indian intelligence agencies' failure to prevent the attacks was leading them to blame Pakistan.
Hafeez’s attempts to prove his innocence comes days after Indian investigators claimed that they have ‘incontrovertible’ proof about ISI and LeT’s involvement in the attacks.
The Indian sleuths have also claimed that they are aware of who trained the 10 terrorists and where the training took place in Pakistan.
Earlier, a veteran CIA analyst also claimed that Mumbai attackers had ISI links.
Indian officials have claimed that the sole surviving terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks, Azmal Kasab, has confessed that he was trained by Lashkar-e-Taiba and spent time at the Muridke camp.
Evidence collected in probes so far has pointed to two members of Lashkar-e-Taiba- Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Yusuf Muzammil, as masterminds in the attacks, according to reports.
Meanwhile, the administration has also told Pakistan that it has evidence of LeT’s involvement in last week’s Mumbai terror attack and that it should arrest its chief Hafeez Sayeed.
Diplomatic sources have revealed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Pakistan leadership have discussed LeT’s role in the attacks that killed 200 and injured over 300.
Pakistan has also been told that it was hard to believe the country’s armed forces, including the ISI, were not aware of the ghastly terror operation.
Abdullah Muntazir, a spokesman of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, has also come in support of Saeed. Muntazir said that he wanted to ''clear up some misconceptions'' about the group’s headquarters and activities, including New Delhi’s charge that it had masterminded the terrorist attack in Mumbai.
Reports also claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba had plans to blow up Bombay Stock Exchange earlier in March this year.
Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, left the group shortly before it was banned in 2002 under American pressure and set up Jamaat as an Islamic charity, which is regarded as its political wing, and converted Muridke to an educational institution.