US can contact me whenever they want: Hafiz Saeed

"I am living my life in the open and the US can contact me whenever they want," Saeed said on Geo TV's 'Capital Talk' programme.u00a0

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The US Monday announced an award of up to $10 million for information leading to arrest and conviction of Saeed and $2 million for Hafiz Adbul Rahman Makki, under the Rewards for Justice programme.u00a0

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The listing for Saeed on the Rewards for Justice website describes him as a former professor of Arabic and Engineering who was a founding member of "Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a radical Deobandi Islamist organisation dedicated to installing Islamist rule over parts of India and Pakistan, and its military branch, Lashkar-e-Taiba".

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Hafiz is believed to be the mastermind behind the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai that left 166 people dead.

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"The US government is listening to the Indian lobby and not making its own decisions," Saeed was quoted as saying.

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Saeed had earlier told the Al Jazeera TV channel that the US move had come as he had been organising rallies against the re-opening of supply lines to NATO forces in Afghanistan.

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Airstrikes last Nov 26 on two Pakistani Army checkposts in the Mohmand Agency in the northwest had killed two dozen soldiers, sparking outrage in Pakistan.u00a0

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Islamabad promptly barred the passage of NATO supplies through the country and decided to boycott an international conference focussed on the future course of action in Afghanistan. It also told the US to vacate the key Shamsi airbase that was used to launch drone attacks.

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