Hafiz Saeed’s security stepped up after ‘foreign agency threat’

Pakistan’s Punjab province government has enhanced the security of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed following a home department alert that a “foreign intelligence agency” may make an attempt on JuD chief’s life.

Pakistan’s Punjab province government has enhanced the security of Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed following a home department alert that a “foreign intelligence agency” may make an attempt on JuD chief’s life.

File photo of Chief of the Pakistan's outlawed Islamic hardliner Jamaat ud Dawa, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. (AFP)

“We have enhanced the security of Hafiz Saeed in accordance with the directive of the home department,” an official of the Punjab government told PTI on Tuesday.

He said more policemen have been deployed at his residence in Jauhar Town and JuD headquarters Chauburji, Lahore, in the wake of the threat.

Senior superintendent police Athar Ismail said the police had “sensitised” the people who are engaged in the personal security of Saeed.

According to the letter issued by the Punjab home department, a “foreign intelligence agency” has made plans to attack ‘high-value targets’ like Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and JuD chief Saeed to create chaos on a wide-scale.

The United States has already put $10 million bounty on the head of Saeed.

Saeed, who orchestrated the November, 2008, Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed, roams around freely in Pakistan despite being a designated terrorist and has made many anti-India remarks and speeches.

Pakistan has said that there is no case against Saeed and that he is free to move in the country as a Pakistani national.