Musharraf hails LeT, JuD militants as 'patriotic'

The 74-year-old retired general, who is on self-exile in Dubai, had last month said that he was the biggest supporter of the LeT and its founder Hafiz Saeed, the Mumbai terror attack mastermind who heads the banned Jamaat-ud Dawah.

"They (LeT and JuD) are patriotic people. The most patriotic. They have sacrificed their lives for Pakistan in Kashmir...," the ARY News channel quoted him as saying.

Musharraf said the two groups have large public support and good people and no one could object if they formed a political party.

The LeT was banned following the 2008 Mumbai attack in which 166 people were killed, while the JuD was declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

JuD chief Saeed, accused of masterminding the Mumbai attack, had last month unveiled his political ambitions by formally announcing that his group will contest the general elections in 2018 under the banner of the Milli Muslim League.

The former military ruler further said that so far the two groups have not approached him but if they desire to enter into an alliance with his party, he has no objection.

Musharraf had last month announced the formation of a grand political alliance after a consultative meeting between representatives of around two dozen political parties.

However, several parties dissociated themselves from Musharraf's Pakistan Awami Ittehad alliance.

Musharraf, who plotted the Kargil conflict, then toppled prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup in 1999 and ruled over Pakistan for nine years, is facing a slew of court cases in Pakistan. He unsuccessfully contested 2013 elections after returning from five years of self-exile in Dubai.

He claimed that he was ready to face all charges as the courts are not under "Nawaz Sharif's control anymore".