NEW DELHI: India welcomed the move by the US to put a bounty of $10 million on the 26/11 mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, hoping that it will pressure Pakistan to take concrete action for prosecuting the key conspirators behind the terror attack that left 166 dead.
The bounty of $10 million for “information leading to the arrest and conviction of” 62-year-old Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba, was announced by the visiting US under secretary of state for political affairs Wendy Sherman at a select function in Delhi on Tuesday night. It is part of the Rewards for Justice programme operated by the US state department, which also announced a bounty of $2 million on Saeed’s brother-in-law and deputy Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki.
Sherman had informed foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai during their talks on Tuesday that the announcement would be made later in the day.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said it will put pressure on the Pakistani government to sincerely prosecute the 26/11 trial which has just been going through the motions with frequent adjournments. “It will now put pressure on the Pakistani government to take action and I hope they will. They cannot continue with this farce of a trial,” Chidambaram told reporters.