Exit Osama bin Laden, enter Hafiz Saeed?

Just as Pakistan is trying to rid itself of the spectre of Osama bin Laden and its authorities would like the world to believe that they had nothing to do with al Qaeda chief hiding in Abbottabad for years, perhaps the world’s new most wanted terrorist is already in the making – not in the caves of Afghanistan or the rugged terrain of Waziristan, but in the cultural centre of the country, Lahore.

One would expect someone like Ayman al Zawahiri or Mullah Omar to take over the mantle with bin Laden gone, but it’s Hafiz Saeed, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa leader, who literally promises much.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa is actually the al Qaeda-linked terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba operating with its new name ever since it was ‘banned’ by the government in 2002.

Recently in Lahore, a gathering of more than 4,000 bearded fanatics, reeking of hate and consumed by rage, cursed the Americans for killing bin Laden and called the terrorist a martyr. There, Saeed, the man allegedly responsible for the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, uttered the words that Osama's death is the beginning of America’s defeat.

Apart from Saeed’s followers, participating in the gathering were also activists of the country’s right-wing parties. In fact, the religio-political party Jamaat-e-Islami declared that Saeed is the leader of all religious parties of the country.

The Pakistan Army is reluctant to launch an operation against terrorists in North Waziristan and its spooks are quick to whisk away nationalists of Balochistan and Sindh, but here is a man declaring jihad against the US - a country giving us billions of dollars in aid from of its taxpayers’ money - and enjoying complete liberty of doing this in the open.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba was originally meant for the Kashmir jihad. But now it poses as much of a threat to the US as al Qaeda does. It has spread its tentacles not only across Pakistan but to other countries as well.

The powers that be in Pakistan, keeping in view what they believe are ‘strategic interests’ of the country, are unlikely to lay a hand on the terrorist organisation, which has been such a handy tool for them in the past and could still serve them in the days to come.

But is it really in Pakistan’s strategic interests to become increasingly isolated internationally and keep getting closer to being labelled a terrorist state? Perhaps for a mindset that is too anti-India to see anything else beyond, yes.