Cases filed against Hafiz Saeed are very weak'

Pakistani authorities may have filed two anti-terrorism cases Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind behind the Mumbai terror attacks, however his lawyer has disclosed that the case filed against his client are "very weak".

"I have gone through both the First Information Reports against Saeed thoroughly. The charges against my client are very weak. He has expressed his views like any other Pakistani," Saeed's lawyer AK Dongar told a private television channel.

Pakistani authorities have also revealed that they have not received any instructions for arresting Saeed despite the registration of two cases against him.

US daily The New York Times has said that the cases filed against Saeed by Islamabad are being considered as a mere 'hogwash' as the ambivalence of Pakistani authorities in cracking down on the Lashkar-e-Tayiba's founder leader was clear.

The newspaper highlighted that the Pakistani government had never been serious regarding putting a check on Saeed and his covert terror activities being run under the LeT's charity organisation JuD.

"Even after he was placed under house arrest in December, the government took steps to soften the blow, allowing him, for instance, to hold a defiant news conference before his confinement began," it said.

While the Pakistani government has been maintaining that it is seriously carrying out the probe regarding the 26/11 attacks, and tried to show the same to the international community especially the US by booking Saeed under the anti-terrorism act, its 'bluff' was laid bare after Saeed's lawyer disclosure, the paper said.