Lashkar defiant, threatens more attacks

new delhi: lashkar-e-taiba chief hafiz mohammed saeed has dismissed as "meaningless and irrelevant" any financial or legal restrictions which the pakistani government may impose on it in the wake of us president george bush declaring the let a 'foreign terrorist organisation'. in a telephonic interview with the times of india, saeed said bans and restrictions would not have any impact on the lashkar's activities."we are going to increase our attacks," he said, adding somewhat cryptically, "ab mujahideen ke liye raastey khul gaye hain (now the path has been opened for the mujahideen)". claiming that pakistan had always placed "pabandiyan (restrictions)" on the lashkar, saeed said that so far no additional restrictions on his movement or on the functioning of the let had been imposed. but he criticised gen pervez musharraf for "bowing to american pressure". "in afghanistan, he did the us bidding and now he may do it again." however, he refused to describe musharraf as a traitor to his group's cause. "these are weak governments run by weak people," was all he said. "we have heard reports that they will close our accounts here but this will not affect us since all our activities are in maqbooza (occupied) kashmir," saeed said, referring to the indian-administered part of jammu and kashmir. but didn't the let have bank accounts and offices in pakistan? "it doesn't matter. we have faced restrictions before. mujahid hamesha mushkilaat mein kaam karta hai (mujahids always work under difficult conditions)." describing the december 13 attack on parliament as "india ka apna drama", saeed claimed the lashkar was opposed to the killing of unarmed people. "we have always said that our target is the indian security forces in kashmir and we are going to increase our attacks on them," he threatened. asked whether he apprehended action against the let's sprawling headquarters at muridke near lahore, he said that the muridke property belongs to "our parent organisation, the markaz dawa-wal-irshad, and there is no restriction by anybody". but if a ban were imposed on it, "we will overcome that difficulty as well". let spokesman yahya mujahid described the markaz - which is also headed by saeed - as an organisation engaged in a "variety of religious and social activities, including jihad in kashmir". since the us has not banned the markaz, any pressure it exerts on pakistan to take action against the lashkar-e-taiba will clearly not affect the overground and financial structure of the group. saeed said india was wrong to put pressure on pakistan to take action against the let because of the december 13 incident. "we have denied involvement but nobody is listening. there is no evidence, no proof against us."