Amid conflict with India over Article 370, Pakistan Minister admits funding Hafiz Saeed

“We have spent millions of rupees on JuD. We need to demotivate the members of the proscribed organization and bring them down to the mainstream,”  Minister Brig (R) Ijaz Ahmed was quoted as saying to Hum News as reported by Hindustan Times.

Hafiz Saeed was the key conspirator of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.

The Pakistani Minister made the comments at a time when the country is engaged in a bitter war of words with India over PM Narendra Modi government's decision to scrap Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Though India has always maintained Kashmir is its internal matter, Pakistan made a futile attempt to internationalise the matter.

Even after failing to garner support from any single nation, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is set to make another desperate attempt to catch the limelight over the Kashmir issue by holding a "big jalsa" in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Friday.

Khan on Wednesday tweeted, "I am going to do a big jalsa in Muzzafarabad on Friday 13 Sept, to send a message to the world about the continuing siege of IOJK by Indian Occupation forces; & to show the Kashmiris that Pakistan stands resolutely with them."