New Delhi: The 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, is backing a new political party, the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), in the 8 February 2024 general elections in the neighbouring country.
With the “aim of making Pakistan an Islamic welfare state”, Hafiz Saeed’s son Talha Saeed is contesting the polls under the PMML’s electoral symbol — a chair.
Hafiz Saeed, who heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front organisation of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), is a UN-designated international terrorist and is the mastermind of numerous attacks in India, including the 2008 Mumbai attack.
In 2018, the Milli Muslim League (MML), the then political face of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, had attempted to take part in the general elections held that year. However, they were denied registration by the Pakistan government.
For the 2024 polls, the PMML has been formed as Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s political front, The Dawn reported.
In a video message on YouTube, PMML president Khalid Masood Sindhu announced that the party is contesting from most of the national and provincial assembly seats across the country.
While Talha is contesting from NA-127-Lahore constituency, Sindhu will face Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) chief and former PM Nawaz Sharif in NA-130 Lahore, The Dawn reported.
Like his father, Talha has also been involved in activities against India. In April last year, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) highlighted Talha’s status as a senior leader of the LeT in a notification. The MHA has designated him a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
The notification stated that the senior LeT leader has been “actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, and planning and executing attacks by the LeT in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan”.
In 2018, the US State Department also imposed sanctions on the MML for Hafiz Saeed’s involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)