Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ( born 5 June 1950) is a Pakistani Islamist who co-founded Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based Islamist militant organization that is designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and Russia. He is listed on India's NIA Most Wanted. +more
After the 2008 Mumbai attacks, he was designated by the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee of the Security Council. He is also listed on the United States Department of the Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
India has demanded that Saeed be handed over into Indian custody by Pakistan; however, there is no extradition agreement between the two countries. Saeed has denied ever being a leader of LeT and has said all allegations that he planned attacks in India are baseless.
In July 2019, three months before the scheduled reviewal of Pakistan's action plan by the Financial Action Task Force, Saeed was arrested by Pakistani authorities and sentenced to an 11-year prison sentence. In early April 2022, he was sentenced an additional 31 years for terror financing.
Early life
Saeed was born in Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. As told by him, his father, Maulana Kamal-ud-Din, a religious scholar, landlord and farmer, along with his family started migrating from East Punjab and reached Pakistan in around four months in the autumn of 1947. +more
He was named hafiz because he memorized the Qur'an during his childhood, a time during which he was already enthusiastic about the verses on jihad. He then attended the Government College Sargodha (now University of Sargodha) before getting a Master's in Islamic Studies at the King Saud University in Riyadh.
A major early influence on his life and ideology was his maternal uncle, and later father-in-law, Hafiz Abdullah Bahawalpuri, who was a famed theologian belonging to the Ahl-i Hadith, who held that democracy was incompatible with Islam (which alienated him with Maulana Maududi's Jamaat-e-Islami) and argued, on the importance of jihad, "that only in jihad does one offer one's life in the way of Allah, which elevates it to a higher plane than merely fulfilling other religious responsibilities such as saying prayers and paying zakat, also entailing sacrifices and adjustments, but not at the scale evident in jihad" and "considered shahadat (martyrdom) to be the crux of jihad. " Bahawalpuri's only son, Abdul Rehman Makki, is Saeed's brother-in-law and has been described as "his close partner. +more
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq appointed Saeed to the Council on Islamic Ideology, and he later served as an Islamic Studies teacher at the University of Engineering and Technology, 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 Soviet-Afghan War. +more
Saeed held two master's degrees from the University of Punjab and a specialisation in Islamic Studies and Arabic Language from King Saud University.
In 1987, Saeed, along with Abdullah Azzam, founded Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad, a group with roots in the Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadis.
This organisation spawned the jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba in 1987, with the help of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence officers.
Lashkar's primary target is the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He is also quoted as saying, "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. +more
Family
Saeed's son Talha Saeed serves as the Lashkar-e-Taiba second-in-command. He controls the finances of Lashkar. +more
Activities
1994
In 1994, Saeed visited the United States and "spoke at Islamic centres in Houston, Chicago and Boston".
2001-2002
Pakistan took Saeed into custody on 21 December 2001 due to an Indian government assertion that he was involved in the 13 December 2001 attack on the Lok Sabha. He was held until 31 March 2002, released, then taken back into custody on 15 May. +more
2006
After 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, the provincial government of Punjab, Pakistan arrested him on 9 August 2006 and kept him under house arrest but he was released on 28 August 2006 after a Lahore High Court order. He was arrested again on the same day by the provincial government and was kept in the Canal Rest House in Sheikhupura. +more
2008-2009
After the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, India submitted a formal request to the +more
On 11 December 2008, Hafiz Muhammed Saeed was again placed under house arrest when the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa to be an LeT front. Saeed was held in house arrest under the Maintenance of Public Order law, which allows authorities to detain temporarily individuals deemed likely to create disorder, until early June 2009 when the Lahore High Court, deeming the containment to be unconstitutional, ordered Saeed to be released. +more
On 6 July 2009, the Pakistani government filed an appeal of the court's decision. Deputy Attorney General Shah Khawar told the Associated Press that "Hafiz Saeed at liberty is a security threat. +more
On 25 August 2009, Interpol issued a red notice against Saeed, along with Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, in response to Indian requests for his extradition.
Saeed was again placed under house arrest by the Pakistani authorities in September 2009.
On 12 October 2009, the Lahore High Court quashed all cases against Saeed and set him free. The court also notified that Jama'at-ud-Da'wah is not a banned organisation and can work freely in Pakistan. +more
Indian attempts at extradition
On 11 May 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 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. +more
Declaration as a terrorist by the United States
The United States declared two Lashkar-e-Tayyiba leaders-Nazir Ahmad Chaudhry and Muhammad Hussein Gill-specially designated global terrorists. The State Department also maintained LeT's designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and added the following aliases to its listing of LeT: Jama’at-ud-Dawa, Al-Anfal Trust, Tehrik-i-Hurmat-i-Rasool, and Tehrik-i-Tahafuz Qibla Awwal. +more
Cooperation with Islamabad
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-radicalisation 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 co-operation with Islamabad.
American bounty
In April 2012, the United States announced a bounty of US$10 million on Saeed, for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Saeed stated that he had nothing to do with the Mumbai attacks and condemned them. +more
Arrest and trial
On 3 July 2019, 23 cases related to terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997 were registered by Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Pakistan. According to CTD, JuD was financing terrorism from the funds collected by several non-profit organisations and trusts that included Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc. +more
On 17 July 2019, Saeed was arrested in Gujranwala by the Punjab CTD on the charges of terror financing. He was subsequently sent to the prison on judicial remand by a Gujranwala Anti Terrorism Court (ATC). +more
While being in prison, Saeed's former residence in Lahore was targeted by a bomb blast on June 23, 2021, resulting in the death of three people and the wounding of 22 more. Three people were arrested for the attack. +more
Views
Pakistani government
Saeed has criticised 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. +more
Speaking on the issue of arrest of separatist Kashmiri leader Masarat Alam by the Jammu and Kashmir government, Saeed said, "Jihad is the duty of an Islamic government. +more
Criticising his anti-India comments, Indian Muslim leader Asaduddin Owaisi said, "People like Hafiz Saeed are unaware about teachings of Islam, jihad in Islam. They are killing innocent lives in Pakistan, children are being killed. +more
Indian government
In January 2013, India's then Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde released a statement on the alleged existence of Hindu terrorism as well as the existence of Hindu terror camps on Indian soil, being run and organised by the BJP and the RSS. As a result, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa welcomed Shinde's statements and congratulated him for admitting the existence of Hindu terrorism. +more
In September 2014, Saeed accused India of "water terrorism". Though there was flood crisis in India too, Saeed blamed India for flood crisis in Pakistan. +more
Responding to a question about the nuclear warning issued by Indian authorities in Jammu and Kashmir after the 2013 India-Pakistan border incidents, Saeed said that in case of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, India should distribute nuclear safety pamphlets in Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta rather than in Kashmir.
Urdu as the national language of Pakistan
Saeed has questioned Pakistan's decision to adopt Urdu (only 8% of Pakistanis speak Urdu as a first language) as its national language in a country where the majority of people speak the Punjabi language. He advocated that Punjabi should be made the national language.
Lashkar-e-Taiba members
Fugitives wanted by India
Fugitives wanted on terrorism charges
King Saud University alumni
People from Sargodha District
University of the Punjab alumni
University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore faculty
Pakistani people of Haryanvi descent
Pakistani expatriates in Saudi Arabia
Leaders of Islamic terror groups
Pakistani far-right politicians
Prisoners and detainees of Pakistan
Pakistani philanthropists
People associated with the 2008 Mumbai attacks
Living people
People designated by the Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee
Pakistani people imprisoned on charges of terrorism
People convicted on terrorism charges
Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List
Individuals designated as terrorists by the United States government
Latest activity
