Sunday, 15 April 2012

Lord Nazir Ahmed, who is of Kashmiri origin, has offered a bounty on current and former U.S. presidents to express his outrage at an American reward for a banned Pakistani militant. (File photo)

A controversial British parliamentarian [member of the House of Lords] of Kashmiri origin, Lord Nazir Ahmed, has announced a bounty for the capture of U.S. President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush according to a report in Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper Sunday.

Ahmed, who became the first Muslim life peer in 1998, made these comments in Haripur on Friday to express his solidarity with chief of Laskhar e Tayyiba, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, upon whom the United States placed a $10 million bounty last month.

Ahmed described the bounty on Saeed as “an insult to all Muslims and by doing so President Obama has challenged the dignity of the Muslim Ummah,” Express Tribune quoted him as saying.

“If the U.S. can announce a reward of $10 million for the captor of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of 10 million pounds on President Obama and his predecessor George Bush,” he said, adding that he was prepared to do whatever was necessary to gather this sum, including selling his assets.

Lord Ahmed is no stranger to controversy in Britain. He hosted a book launch at the House of Lords in 2005 of a controversial Swedish writer Israel Shamir who is known for his anti-Israeli and Jewish views.

Ahmed was a vocal opponent of the British government’s decision to honor writer Salman Rushdie with a knighthood in 2007.