'Mera rishta hai Hafiz Saeed ke saath': Top Pakistan politician's shocking admission; netizens blast UN

Terror in Pakistan has the full backing of both its government and army — and it was proved again this week. A video surfaced of Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad, a senior official of the ruling party, openly glorifying UN-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed and calling the Lashkar-e-Taiba-linked Pakistan Markazi Muslim League his "second team". His remarks come amid growing evidence that Islamabad continues to shield Saeed, despite international sanctions and bounties on his head.

In a video shared by Pakistani-origin journalist Taha Siddiqui on Tuesday, Speaker of Punjab Assembly Malik Muhammad is seen saying: "Mera Saifulla Kasuri saheb ke nisbat, professor Talha saheb ke saath meri tallukdari kisi aisi buniyaad ki wajah se nahi hai. Mera ek rishta hai Hafiz Saeed ke saath. Mere walid marhum ke saath unka bahut gehra talluk tha. Malik Rasheed saheb ke saath unka bhaiyon jaisa rishta hain. Humen inke saath Markazi Muslim League ko hum apni dusri jamaat samajhte hai. Aur hum samajhte hain ke ye log Pakistan ki khidmat karne wale log hain. (My association with Saifulla Kasuri and Professor Talha is not based on any particular reason. I have a relationship with Hafiz Saeed. He had a very close relationship with my late father. He shared a brother-like bond with Malik Rasheed. We consider the Markazi Muslim League as our second party. And we believe these people are serving Pakistan.")

Hafiz Saeed is the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba. The Markazi Muslim League (PMML), mentioned in the video, is widely regarded as the political front of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its charity arm, Jamaat-ud-Dawa.

Taha Siddiqui added in a separate post: "Also revealing to hear how this elected official (of the ruling party of Pakistan and holding an important position of Punjab Assembly speaker) links Hafiz Saeed to Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (#PMML), confirming PMML linkages to Lashkar-e-Taiba (and Jamaat-ud-Dawa).”

Reacting to the revelations, Mariam Solaimankhil, a Member of Afghanistan's Parliament in exile, questioned the silence of the United Nations. "Of course, the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly is on stage with Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists. In Pakistan, terror is policy, not an accident. Hafiz Saeed’s son gets a mic. Peaceful voices get prison. And the UN? Quiet as ever—watching genocide through binoculars."

Hafiz Saeed has been designated as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council's 1267 Sanctions Committee since 2008 and carries a $10 million bounty from the United States. Officially, he is serving a 78-year prison sentence in Pakistan for terror financing, yet intelligence reports and satellite footage accessed by India Today show him living comfortably at his Lahore residence under tight but favourable ISI security. His residence now functions as a "sub-jail", allowing him to operate with minimal restrictions.

India has consistently maintained that Pakistan's army protects and deploys terrorists trained by Saeed's terror outfit to wage proxy wars in Kashmir. In May, Indian airstrikes targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan, following which senior Pakistani army officers were seen attending terrorists' funerals led by Lashkar commander Abdul Rauf.

On May 30, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called for the handing over of Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India. "Both of them are not only in India's list of ‘Most Wanted Terrorists’, they are also UN Designated Terrorists. Hafiz Saeed is also guilty of the Mumbai attacks, and justice must be done for his crime." He also said that if Pakistan is serious about talks, it should hand over terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India.