LAHORE: Apropos of an article about Hafiz Muhammad Saeed entitled “Saeed incited UK Muslims to militancy, says BBC report”, which was published in Dawn on Wednesday, a spokesman for the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) described the report as a “bundle of lies”.

In a statement, the spokesman said that in the report facts about Hafiz Saeed and his activities in Glasgow before 9/11 “have been distorted deliberately”.

The spokesman said the JuD chief taught at the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, for 25 years and had been the head of its Islamic studies department.

He said the BBC had mentioned that Hafiz Saeed had been invited to the UK as an UET professor and Islamic scholar by the British Muslim Organisation. He visited the country with the permission of the UET administration.

“Hafiz Saeed’s visit was purely for educational and preaching purposes. It is unfortunate that as the Indian and western media are unleashing baseless propaganda against Islam and Muslims, the BBC has tried to contribute to the vicious campaign by referring to Hafiz Saeed’s purely educational and preaching visits done in the 90s.”

The JuD spokesman added: “As a professor of an engineering university, Hafiz Saeed’s visit to Glasgow was like that of other Pakistani Islamic scholars who are invited to foreign countries for delivering lectures.”

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2018