Lahore:
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) activists led by their chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed offered funeral prayers in absentia at the group's headquarters in Lahore today for Osama bin Laden, killed by US forces in an operation in northwest Pakistan.
A large number of JuD workers gathered at Markaz Al-Qadsia and joined the prayers for the Al Qaeda chief led by Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Addressing the gathering after the prayers, Saeed said: "Allah accept the sacrifice of bin Laden and give him a place in heaven."
Bin Laden had made sacrifices for Muslims around the world and he would be remembered for long, Saeed said.
He said it was regrettable that Pakistan's rulers expressed "pleasure" at the death of bin Laden to please their "masters" in America.
Pakistan's rulers "should not invite the wrath of God" as bin Laden acted as a "spokesman of the people of Pakistan" and the whole nation was saddened by his death, Saeed claimed.
Saeed said funeral prayers in absentia for bin Laden would be offered in other parts of the country.