ISLAMABAD, May 3 (Reuters) - The founder of one of Pakistan's most violent Islamist militant groups has told Muslims to be heartened by the death of Osama bin Laden, as his "martyrdom" would not go in vain, a spokesman for the group said on Tuesday.
The media are often barred from gatherings of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let), the militant group blamed for the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai.
But a spokesman for Hafiz Mohammad Saeed said he had told followers at special prayers held for the slain al Qaeda leader that this "great person" would continue to be a source of strength and encouragement for Muslims around the world.
"Osama bin Laden was a great person who awakened the Muslim world," Saeed's spokesman Yahya Mujahid quoted him as saying during prayers at the headquarters of the LeT's charity in the Punjab capital Lahore on Monday.
"Martyrdoms are not losses, but are a matter of pride for Muslims", Saeed said. "Osama bin Laden has rendered great sacrifices for Islam and Muslims, and these will always be remembered."
LeT, one of the largest and best-funded Islamist militant organisations in South Asia, is blamed for the November 2008 assault on Mumbai, which killed 166 people in India's commercial hub. Its founder, Saeed, now heads an Islamic charity, a group the United Nations says is a front for the militant group.
Western security analysts believe that LeT is linked to al Qaeda, though LeT officials deny this.
Mujahid said thousands of Saeed's followers, many of them often in tears, took part in the prayers.
Al Qaeda leader bin Laden was shot dead by U.S. special forces in an operation targeting a compound near Pakistan's main military academy in the northwestern garrison town of Abbottabad early on Monday.
Saeed founded LeT in the 1990s but abandoned its leadership after India blamed it and another militant group for an attack on the Indian parliament in Deccember 2001.
The group was nurtured by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency to fight India in Kashmir, and analysts say it is still being unofficially tolerated by Pakistan, even though it was banned in the country in 2002.
Admiral Robert Willard, the head of the United States military's Pacific Command, last month expressed concern over the expanding reach of LeT, saying it was no longer solely focused on India, or even in South Asia.
(Reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Rebecca Conway and Miral Fahmy)
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