Mullahs, militants and military: Pak’s shadowy coalition

As sword-emblazoned banners fluttered above the crowd, Hafiz Saeed, a burly professor-turned-militant chief, basked in the adulation of Pakistani nationalists who see him as a hero, not a terrorist.

The founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose commandoes killed 166 people in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Mr Saeed is – to outside eyes – the public face of the nexus between spies and jihadists that makes nuclear-armed Pakistan so dangerous.

Now, he is back.

“Pakistan is facing very severe threats from both sides – India is one side, America and Nato forces are on the other, and the agenda of both is Pakistan,” Mr Saeed told the Financial Times. “We want to send a message to them that the defence of Pakistan is uppermost in our minds.”

Fist-waving speakers told the throng – which included boys sporting black and white headbands and brandishing sticks – that India would be sundered into quarters.