Pakistan should have acted against Saeed: Chidambaram
By IANSTuesday, March 2, 2010
NEW DELHI - Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday criticised Pakistan for allowing Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed to make provocative anti-India statements despite New Delhi having given clear information of his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
“We are very clear of the role of Hafiz Saeed (in the Mumbai terror attack). It is a role that deserves to be investigated. Any responsible government would have acted on the information. Far from investigating, the Pakistan government is allowing him to make provocative statements, Chidambaram told reporters.
The home minister was presenting the monthly report of his ministry.
He said India was expecting Pakistan to take action against terrorists named in three dossiers that New Delhi handed over to Islamabad during foreign secretary-level talks last week.
Three dossiers prepared by the ministry of home affairs were handed over by our foreign secretary (Nirupama Rao) to the foreign secretary (Salman Bashir) of Pakistan. We expect Pakistan to take action against the persons mentioned in the three dossiers, Chidambaram said.
The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan met Feb 25 in New Delhi.
The dossiers had information on terrorist leaders, included Hafiz Saeed, who masterminded the Mumbai terror attack in 2008.
The dossiers also mentioned threats issued by Ilyas Kashmiri, an Al Qaeda leader in Pakistan, and about fugitives from Indian law who are in Pakistan. However, the Pakistani foreign secretary had termed the Indian evidence against Saeed as “literature rather than evidence”.
Chidambaram said he also met Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) chief Robert Mueller Feb 23. Our discussions were useful and centered on the case of David Headley and on intelligence sharing, he said.
Headley, a Pakistani born US national, is suspected to have played a key role in the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people in a three-day siege Nov 26-29, 2008.
Headley, a key Lashkar operative, is in US custody since last year and has been indicted by the FBI on charges of planning the Mumbai mayhem and planning more terror attacks in India and Denmark.
