Talha Saeed is the son of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The 49-year-old Talha Saeed, who is contesting the upcoming election in Pakistan against Imran Khan, was designated as a terrorist in August 2012 by the then Barack Obama administration in the United States. Saeed is the son of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
This is the second time that Talha will contest the elections. He had contested the 2018 June election under the banner of Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek from seat NA-91 in Sargodha, which is the Saeeds’ hometown. This time he is contesting from NA-127 in Lahore on the ticket of Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML). Interestingly, in 2018, Hafiz Saeed’s son-in-law, Hafiz Khalid Walid, who too was designated as a terrorist by the Obama administration, had contested the election from seat number PP-167. Both of them had lost.
Both Talha and Khalid Walid (National Identity Number: 3410104067339) were accused of plotting the suicide terror attack on a Central Reserve Police Force camp at Bemina, Srinagar, on 13 March 2013, in which five CRPF personnel lost their lives.
The Obama administration had designated eight Lashkar affiliated individuals as terrorists in August 2012. The other six were: Sajid Mir, Abdullah Mujahid, Ahmed Yaqub, Qari Muhammad Yaqoob Sheikh, Amir Hamza and Abdullah Muntazir.
While designating Talha (National Identity Number: 3520228341335) as a terrorist, the US administration had stated that Talha Saeed has been a prominent leader within the LeT since early 2005. As of mid-2011, Talha headed the group’s teachers’ department, using this position to acquire facilities on behalf of LeT. As of 2010, Talha also worked on websites to support LeT’s media operations as well as on indoctrination and propaganda programs. Talha founded an LeT front group, which he planned to use to pay journalists to write favourable stories on behalf of LeT as early as 2009. As of mid-2008, Talha also ran LeT’s radio operations and worked for LeT’s main magazine.
In mid-2009, Talha was travelling extensively throughout Pakistan to speak on behalf of LeT. Talha was part of LeT’s junior leadership structure, charged with delivering speeches and recruiting members and supporters to LeT from across Pakistan as of mid-2008.
Talha was also on the executive board of LeT’s foreign relations department, reporting to LeT’s head of foreign affairs, Hafiz Abdur Rahman Makki, in 2008. In late 2007, Talha was a member of an LeT delegation that travelled to the Gulf seeking support.
Similarly, the US administration had described the 52-year-old Khalid Walid as someone who has been a member of LeT’s central advisory committee since at least 2003 and has held various leadership positions in the group since at least 2006. He has run LeT’s political bureau since mid-2008, though Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki holds the formal title as the bureau’s head. In 2006, Walid was the deputy head of LeT’s foreign relations department. Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki was designated by the US pursuant to E.O. 13224 on November 4, 2010.
As of 2011, Walid actively engaged in LeT political affairs under LeT emir Hafiz Muhammad Saeed’s direction. As of 2009, Walid served as Hafiz Muhammad Saeed’s personal assistant and acted as LeT’s point of contact with high-end business contacts and other unidentified VIPs. As of late 2008, during the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, Walid served as a lead LeT man in Punjab Province, Pakistan.