LeT founder's son was handler of Pakistani man arrested in US

LeT founder Hafiz Mohd Saeed's son Talha was the handler of a Pakistani national arrested by FBI on charges of supporting the terror group and directly communicated with him for production, editing and designing of radical videos to promote the outfit and recruit 'jihadists'.

FBI claimed in its complaint submitted before a federal US court in Virginia yesterday that Talha Saeed communicated directly with 24-year-old Jubair Ahmad, a resident of Dale City in Virginia arrested by FBI for allegedly providing material support to LeT.

Special FBI agent Daudshah S Andish told the court that the propaganda videos produced by Jubair were aimed at developing support for LeT and recruiting jihadists over internet for the outfit.

While it did not mention how Talha Saeed communicated with Jubair, the FBI said that the son of the LeT founder and JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed was the man behind production of such radical videos.

"The LeT video uploaded by Jubair contains photos of Hafiz Saeed surrounded by uniformed officers, which demonstrates that Jubair followed Talha's instructions to use such photos in the video," the FBI said.

"On September 25, 2010, Jubair communicated with a person whom he addressed as Talha. Talha asked Jubair to include pictures of Hafiz when Hafiz was being arrested and placed under house arrest. As the conversation continued, Talha described types of photos to be used in the video.

"It is reasonable to conclude that the statements regarding Hafiz being placed under arrest are a reference to the widely publicised detentions of LeT leader Hafiz Saeed by Pakistani authorities," the FBI said.

In another communication between the two on September 25, 2010, "Talha said there was a prayer by Hafiz on YouTube and they needed to tweak the voice of that audio to make it better," the FBI stated in the complaint.

It said the LeT video uploaded by Jubair presents a series of images while a prayer by Hafiz Saeed is played in the background. This matches the concept of the video described by Talha, it added.

During the conversations between the two, the FBI said Talha Saeed instructed not to put images of the Mumbai terror attacks and too many pictures of Kashmir in that video.

"Jubair asked (Talha) if he should post the Mumbai one and added that they want to show their power," the FBI complaint said.

"Based on my knowledge of LeT terrorist operation I believe this is a reference to LeT's ability to project their power as demonstrated by the attack in Mumbai, India, on November 26, 2008, which resulted in the death of over 160 people," said Special Agent Andish.

"Talha told Jubair not to use anything referencing Mumbai but said Jubair could reference Palestine and operations of 'mujahideen' in Kashmir. Talha said Jubair could use several scenes like these and suggested that Jubair search for LeT on YouTube where he could find those scenes in 'jihadi' songs," Andish said.

"The discussion of LeT, Mumbai, 'mujahideen' operations in Kashmir, and 'jihadi' songs reflects that the purpose of the video is to promote LeT as a terrorist organisation," he said.

According to Andish, in early October 2010, after seeing the first video, Talha Saeed contacted Jubair and asked him to remove the words Lashkar-e-Taiba wherever they were written.

Talha also asked Jubair not to show too many images of Kashmir, but instructed him to add images of the 'mujahedeen' where the word "Jilted" is spoken in the prayer.