NEW DELHI: India Friday strongly criticised Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed holding a two-day rally in Lahore, terming it as "nothing short of mainstreaming of terrorism".
External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, addressing a briefing here, said the fact that Saeed held a two-day congregation of his proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) at a national monument with a large number of police standing guard despite being a designated terrorist entity highlighted "blatant disregard for the global norms evolving against terrorism".
Saeed, who orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, on Thursday addressed a public rally at the ground of the Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore where he spewed venom against India and the US.
The Pakistan government had run two special trains to transport people to Lahore for the JuD's congregation that began Thursday.
Akbaruddin said: "We describe it as nothing short of mainstreaming of terrorism".
"This was an event that took place at a national monument in Pakistan, where large number of police were deployed, the event was advertised all across Pakistan.
"It was an event by an organisation proscribed not only by Indian but by the US, UK, Australia and the UN under Resolution 1267. The event was addressed by an individual who is designated a terrorist under the same UNSC Resolution 1267," he said.
"If these sort of facilities provided to a designated terrorist organisation or to a designated terrorist entity, with people also indicating and reports that train services were provided for this organisation and entity; this is nothing short of mainstreaming a terrorist entity and a terrorist who is designated so all over the world. Obviously this means this is blatant disregard for the global norms which are evolving against terrorism," added Akbaruddin.
Saeed said, "Acting on Quran it is obligatory on all of us to help Kashmiris in their struggle to get freedom for India. Those who had performed Jihad against Russia should go to Kashmir and help the Kashmiris. Gone are the days when Mujahideen were declared terrorists and sanctions were imposed. Now Jihad has entered in the second phase (in Kashmir). To deal with the Indian atrocities we will have to adopt the course of Ghaznavi and Ghauri (invaders)".
He said when India and its allies "invaded" Muslim countries, then Jihad was the only option left with Muslims to react. He asked Obama as to why he could not see the Indian government "atrocities" in Kashmir, Hyderabad, Assam, and Israel's in Palestine.
Targeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the JuD chief said: "By holding sham elections Modi wants to tell the world that Kashmir is not a disputed territory."