Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is said to have been one of the founders of Lashkar-e-Taiba when it was formed in 1989. When the Guardian met him in Pakistan in 1998, it found a “short, round man in spectacles” delivering a sermon to his disciples in which he told them: “Terrorists are killers, they kidnap and murder the innocent, but a jihad is to help the poor, the weak and the starving and to establish the supremacy of Allah.” His stated opponents then were those he regarded as heretics – liberal Pakistanis and the Shia Muslim, Christian and Hindu minorities. He lived on a heavily guarded estate in Punjab, a gift from his Middle Eastern patrons, and argued that democracy was in opposition to local tradition. “We have suffered because we have abandoned our traditions and strayed into democracy,” he said. “The democratic system is not Islamic but a Jewish and Christian import from Europe … In Islam, God is the ruler but democracy gives rights to all people.” His attention was focused on Kashmir but he indicated that it might not end there. “At this time our contest is Kashmir. Let’s see when the time comes. Our struggle with the Jews is always there.” After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan banned the group. A former professor of Islamic studies, Saeed was placed under house arrest in 2006 at the time of the alleged airline bomb plot in the UK but was released after the Lahore high court declared his detention illegal. Duncan Campbell reports.
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