`Hafiz Saeed is Pakistan's paid strategic agent provocateur'

Defence expert Brigadier (Retired) Anil Gupta has described Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed as someone who is allowed to roam freely and hold anti-India rallies in Pakistan.

New Delhi: Defence expert Brigadier (Retired) Anil Gupta has described Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader and internationally proclaimed terrorist Hafiz Saeed as Pakistan`s paid "strategic agent provocateur", and one who is allowed to roam freely and hold anti-India rallies in his country.

"Hafiz Saeed is an internationally proclaimed terrorist. He is heading a terrorist organisation in Pakistan. He is the one who is an active member of the Pakistani deep state and he is a paid agent provocateur as far as Pakistan is concerned. He is considered a strategic asset by the ISI and has the patronage of the Pakistan government; is allowed roam freely and hold rallies in Pakistan when he has been declared a international terrorist." Gupta told ANI.

"Even today, at Lahore, he held a rally. He is ordering Nawaz Sharif as Sharif`s reign does not run in Pakistan. He is being dictated to by both the army and by terrorists. Nawaz Sharif is helpless; he can do nothing; it is only the Pakistan Army that decides what is to be done," he said.

Justifying the surgical strikes by India on terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) on Wednesday night, Gupta said, "We have not attacked Pakistan, we have not attacked the Pakistan Army` we have attacked terrorist camps in our own territory which was across the so-called LoC."

"They are just crying for the sake of crying and, in case they retaliate, we are ready and they should be ready to face the consequences. But their retaliation would imply that they are the ones who are harbouring terrorist; so, therefore, if they are ready to accept that; if they are ready to confirm the world`s findings that Pakistan is an epicenter of terrorism, they are most welcome to do so," he added.