Hafiz Saeed leads Eid al-Fitr prayers in Lahore amid Indo-Pak tensions

Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group that staged the 2008 Mumbai attacks, led Eid al-Fitr prayers in Lahore.

Zee Media Bureau

Lahore: Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group that staged the 2008 Mumbai attacks, led Eid al-Fitr prayers at Gaddafi stadium here on Friday. On microblogging website Twitter, Saeed tweeted Eid greetings with a strong anti-India message. In his tweet, Saeed said, "Time is near when those oppressed in Kashmir, Palestine and Burma will celebrate `Eid` in the air of Freedom - Insha`Allah. #EidMubarak." "So, we say Eid Mubarak to you in these testing times; soon world will say Eid Mubarak to you after your triumph. May ALLAH accept." "ALLAH will not waste your Sacrifices, Ummah will be glorified, Islam will be strengthened, that time is very near #kashmir," he tweeted from his account `@HafizSaeedJUD`. Saeed, who is roaming freely in Pakistan despite Indian requests to Islamabad to capture him, has a USD 10 million US bounty on his head. The event, which was advertised on posters all over Lahore, is likely to further strain the ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The latest round of tensions flared between India and Pakistan is due to the killing of five Indian soldiers along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistani troops. Saeed has over the past year addressed large anti-India rallies and appeared on prime-time television, and now even gives interviews to Western news media outlets he previously eschewed. At his Lahore compound - a fortified house, office and mosque - Saeed is shielded not only by his supporters wielding Kalashnikovs outside his door, but also by the Pakistani state, the New York Times had reported earlier this year.