26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed's outfit joins hands with Pak's Punjab administration in flood-relief

Lahore: As floods rendered 37 lakh people homeless in Pakistan's Punjab over the last two weeks, Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's political wing has become active in flood-affected districts along with the provincial government.

A photo released along with a statement on Thursday by the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), believed to be the new face of Saeed’s banned groups, showed Deputy Commissioner (Faisalabad) Captain (R) Nadeem Nasir on board a boat along with its members visiting the flood affected areas of the district on Wednesday.

There was no official statement from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led provincial government about Nasir's visit to the flood affected areas with the PMML team.

The PMML is a political wing of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that has carried out terror strikes in many parts of India, including the horrific 26/11 Mumbai attack in 2008 that killed 166 people.

Saeed is a UN-designated terrorist on whom the US had placed a USD 10 million bounty. Arrested in July 2019 in a terror financing case, he has been in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat Jail since 2019.

As part of Operation Sindoor, Indian military targeted the LeT's base at Muridke in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people. Three JuD activists were killed and their funeral was attended by the Pakistan Army, police and civilian bureaucracy senior officers.

Since Operation Sindoor, the PMML has become even more active and has the patronage of the PML-N government, both in centre and province, sources said here.

According to Punjab's Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director General Irfan Ali Kathia, some 37 lakh have been affected by floods across Punjab and more than 3,900 villages in Punjab have been submerged in the last two weeks.

The death toll has risen to 46 people since the flooding started on August 23 in this spell, the PDMA said.

As many as 1.4 million residents and 1 million animals have been relocated to safer locations.