Pak Expresses Inability to Arrest Saeed without Evidence
Citing non-availability of evidence, Pakistan has said that it cannot arrest outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief and last year’s Mumbai terror attacks accused Hafiz Saeed.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Saeed would not be arrested merely on the ground of statements that links him to the attacks and that the Indian side has been asked to make proofs of his involvement in the crime available to it.
“We do not have any proof against Hafiz Saeed,” Malik told Geo News channel in an interview.
“We have demanded and we are demanding from India that if you have proof, give (it to) us, but do not do propaganda. I assure we will take action. But just on hearsay we cannot arrest our citizen,” he said.
“If New Delhi wants some credible action, it needs to provide substantiated evidence,” he added.
Claiming that Indians were equally involved in the attacks, Malik said that Pakistan had sought information about Indian citizens who were allegedly involved in the incident.
He said that India would have to give information about how the perpetrators traveled to Mumbai by boat without being detected and who refueled their boat at sea.
It may be mentioned that Saeed, after UN Security Council declared the JuD a front for the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, was put under house arrest and was later freed on the instructions of Lahore High Court on June.
The federal and Punjab governments has challenged his release in the Supreme Court earlier this month. However, the Punjab provincial government has said that it could withdraw from the appeal as the federal government had not provided sufficient evidence against Saeed.
Five LeT operatives, including operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, arrested by Pakistani security agencies are currently facing trial in an anti-terror court for alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
