Hafiz Mohd Saeed, the chief of the banned JuD accused of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, has claimed that the linking of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested for the 26/11 strikes, to his group was part of a "conspiracy" against it.

Released from house arrest only last month after being detained in December, 2008 in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, Saeed made the remarks while addressing a Friday prayer congregation at a mosque in Gujranwala in Pakistan's Punjab province on Friday.

He claimed that the UN blacklisted the Jamaat-ud Dawah (JuD) at India's request following the Mumbai attacks. Saeed also alleged that the linking of Kasab to JuD was part of a "conspiracy" against the group.

Saeed, who claims that JuD is a charitable body, went on to question India's defence spending, saying New Delhi's military budget was equivalent to Pakistan's total annual budget. He also raised the bogey that Pakistan faced an "existential threat" from across the eastern border.

The JuD chief, also the founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba militant group, alleged that the Pentagon had a "secret agenda" to disintegrate Pakistan and the country's current rulers had no capacity to defend it.

Pakistan's rulers should desist from following former President Pervez Musharraf's policies, he added.

Saeed also claimed that NATO forces would have to leave Afghanistan by next year. The JuD chief and several of his aides were put under house arrest in December last year after the Mumbai attacks.

They were all subsequently freed.

Saeed and his close aide Col (retired) Nazir Ahmed were released on the orders of the Lahore High Court in June. The federal and Punjab governments have challenged the High Court's order in the Supreme Court.

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