News / Asia

Pakistani Militant Leader Offers Storm Aid to US

Hafiz Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, attends an anti-U.S. rally in Peshawar, Pakistan, October 1, 2012.
Hafiz Saeed, head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity and founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, attends an anti-U.S. rally in Peshawar, Pakistan, October 1, 2012.
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VOA News
A Pakistani militant leader with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head has offered humanitarian aid to Americans affected by superstorm Sandy.

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed is the founder of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group and now the head of the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa. He said his organization is ready to send volunteers, doctors, food, medicines and other relief items if the U.S. government allows it.

Saeed said in a statement that as a Muslim, it is his religious duty to help Americans battling the storm, even if the United States has put a bounty on his head.

Saeed's charity is seen as a front for LeT, which is banned in Pakistan. Washington and New Delhi blame the militant group for a commando-style attack that paralyzed India's financial capital Mumbai in 2008 and killed 166 people.

But Pakistanis recognize the charity for its relief efforts in the aftermath of 2005's devastating Kashmir earthquake and 2010's flooding, which was the country's worst in nearly a century.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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