Lashkar-e-Tayiba's operations commander and alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, who was detained last month during Pakistan's crackdown on military groups, is reportedly furious at the Jamaat-ud-Dawah leadership's U-turn to publicly disown him.
He is 'extremely hurt' by a recent statement from a Jamaat spokesman that both he and LeT communications expert Zarar Shah never had any link with the Jamaat or its chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, a media report said.
Both Lakhvi and Shah were detained during an operation by Pakistan Army near PoK capital Muzaffarabad last month following the UNSC resolution declaring JuD a front for LeT.
Jamaat and LeT founder Saeed is currently under house arrest in Lahore and his detention was recently extended by two months.
In an apparent bid to shield Saeed, Jamaat spokesman Abdullah Muntazir recently told the media that Lakhvi and Shah 'were never associated with the Jamaat, which has always been into charity work', the News daily said.
Saeed had himself stated this after the Mumbai attacks, the spokesman said.
However, a former LeT office-bearer, who is now part of the Jamaat, confirmed on condition of anonymity that Lakhvi was 'extremely upset over the U-turn taken by his former close associates and complains they had abandoned him at a time when he desperately needed their backing'.
Lakhvi, alias Abu Waheed Irshad Ahmad, hails from Okara district of Punjab. Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Mumbai attacker arrested for the Mumbai attacks is from the same district.
He has also been named by Kasab as his trainer and the planner of the Mumbai carnage, India has said. Pakistan has turned down India's demand for Lakhvi's extradition.
