http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP223307.htm INTERVIEW-Don't believe slurs, says freed Pakistani charity boss LAHORE, Oct 20 (Reuters) - India and the United States regard his charity as a front for a terrorist group blamed for bombs that killed more than 180 people in Mumbai on July 11. But freed on Wednesday from house arrest in Pakistan, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed says he is the victim of an Indian smear campaign. Saeed heads a charity called Jamaat-ud-Dawa that was at the forefront of relief work after an earthquake a year ago killed 73,000 in Pakistani Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province. Yet in April the United States added the group to its list of terrorist organisations. "We're all about relief and social work. Every child in Pakistan knows about our activities," Saeed told Reuters after being incarcerated for two months by Pakistan authorities. "We're spending huge amounts on such projects, and terrorists can't do this," he said. Saeed is better known as the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned jihadi group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. But he says he is a charity worker and the rest is Indian propaganda -- although members of the intelligence community, including Pakistanis, still regard him as the moving spirit behind Lashkar. The initial reason given for Saeed's detention in August was to stop him holding a rally. The timing inevitably raised speculation that the real reason was to appease New Delhi. India implicated Lashkar in a series of deadly train and station attacks in Mumbai that killed 186 people earlier this year. Saeed condemned the Mumbai attacks, saying targeting civilians violated the laws of Islam, and denied any Pakistani role in an event that had threatened to derail a flagging peace process started by India and Pakistan almost three years ago. But his words are unlikely to cut much ice in India. "They are making great efforts to link us with Lashkar-e-Taiba, with the ISI (the Pakistan military's spy agency) and even with al Qaeda," he said, accusing Indian police of obtaining confessions by torture. Saeed's fort-like headquarters in Lahore, called Jamia Qadsia, houses a large mosque, library and bookshop, but the body search given to visitors and the guards carrying Kalashnikovs on the roof suggests it is a charity with enemies. INTELLIGENCE ASSET India says it will share evidence with Pakistan to see just how serious President Pervez Musharraf is about nullifying groups like Lashkar, that security analysts say enjoys ISI support. They suspect that the ISI views Lashkar as a key asset for keeping a militant option open in Kashmir, while Musharraf tries making peace with India. After a hiatus caused by the Mumbai blasts, Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries are due to meet in New Delhi in mid-November. Pakistan has kept Saeed's group on a watch list, but the government is not compelled to ban the charity until the United Nations designates it a terrorist organisation. The charity, according to its critics, raises funds and recruits for Lashkar and the United States says Lashkar has al Qaeda connections. Lashkar is drawn from the same Wahabi Muslim sect that has shaped Osama bin Laden's world view. But security experts in Pakistan believe any ties between Lashkar and al Qaeda were loose and didn't survive after Sept. 11, 2001, when militants were forced to reassess their friends. Despite his reputation as Lashkar's founder, Saeed challenges anyone to prove he was ever the group's amir, although he held a news conference in December 2001 at which he announced he was handing over the reins to a commander based in Indian Kashmir. Saeed quit Lashkar days after it was implicated in an attack on New Delhi's parliament, almost causing a fourth war between South Asia's nuclear-armed rivals, and days before Pakistan banned Lashkar, along with some other groups. "I have never been its chief. Sometimes it was written that I was its chief, sometimes founder," Saeed said, cautioning people not to believe all that is said about him. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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