Of Hafiz Saeed's rants and India's customary statements

A couple of days back, the chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba appeared on television in Pakistan and praised the Pathankot attack. There was some amount of furore as to why a terrorist was being allowed to air his views.

This was followed by a customary or rather should we say mandatory statement from India to Pakistan urging them to reign in on Saeed.

Let us set the record straight and that is Pakistan is not going to reign in on Saeed ever. The Pakistanis get away by assuring the United States of America about acting against Saeed and never doing anything about it.

It was only in the month of October 2015 that Nawaz Sharrif the Prime Minister of Pakistan assured the United States of America that he would act against Saeed. Barely three months later, Saeed was on television airing his views.

How does India tackle Saeed?

As long as Saeed is in Pakistan he is ensured of guaranteed protection. India will ask Pakistan to act, but that is not going to happen. However the better way for India to deal with Saeed is to break his network in India especially at Kashmir.

The first lesson that we had to learn from a Pathankot attack is to secure ourselves within and then hope that Pakistan would act against the masterminds.

In the case of Saeed there are various factors that would prevent Pakistan from acting. He is a strategic asset for them who raises the Kashmir bogey for Pakistan every now and then.

For starters one needs to understand that Pakistan does not accept Saeed to be the chief of the Lashkar. He is always referred to as the head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and any reference to him and the Lashkar are strongly denied in Pakistan. Both Pakistan and the Lashkar have also denied that the outfit has anything to do with the JuD.

The manner in which the trial against him in the 26/11 attack case was handled is testimony of the fact that Pakistan is not one bit serious about acting against him.

In addition to this the name of Lakhvi who holds the title, "Imam of Jihad," is sufficient to send shivers down the spines of people. This fear has resulted in judges opting out of hearing cases against him which has ensured that the trial has hit a road block.

JuD is safe in Pakistan

The Lashkar survives on the JuD for its finances. The JuD has been called a charitable organization and any charge of linking it to terror financing have been denied outright by Pakistan. To substantiate this, we need to look at the recent events in which it became amply clear that the ban on the JuD was nothing more than just a hogwash.

Pakistan has made it clear that there is no question of a ban on the JuD. It would only watch the organization for suspicious behaviour. The JuD always work along with the Pakistan army and this acts as a great cover for them.

Following the 26/11 attack, investigators in India found the funding of the attack had been carried out by the JuD. There was international pressure and this forced a ban on the JuD. In fact the then interior minister, Rehman Malik had informed that the JuD had been banned with immediate effect.

Although the statement sounded strong, Pakistan was not going to take any chances and directly confront the JuD.

It did not impose the ban directly but asked various authorities such as the UN to impose sanctions on the JuD. Paksitan's eye wash was evident in the year 2008. It sealed 100 offices of the JuD and even Saeed was placed under house arrest only to be released later.

Pakistan then that there was no need to issue any notification banning the JuD when the UN has already added it to the list of banned outfits.

No messing with JuD

When the JuD is in legal trouble, it is the top bureaucrats who draft a petition on its behalf. The Pakistan government has even appointed an administrator to oversee the affairs of the JuD. The JuD has a sprawling campus at Murdike spread over 200 acres of land. It has teaching facilities catering to 3000 students and also residential complexes.