Malik still stonewalls on Saeed
Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik, who continued to raise the issue of the Babri Masjid demolition on Saturday by claiming that its “fallout” was felt even in Pakistan, put a spanner in the peace talks by virtually rejecting India’s demand for action against 26/11 mastermind Hafeez Saeed.
The Indian side, meanwhile, updated their Pakistani counterparts on the Samjhauta Express blast probe on Saturday after they raised the issue prominently on Mr Malik’s insistence that Pakistanis were keen to know the status of the probe. The NIA on Saturday night arrested the man accused of planting the bomb on the Samjhauta Express, one Rajinder Pehelwan who also goes under the aliases Samundar and Dashrath.
Despite India sending dossiers of evidence, Mr Malik claimed “hard” and “substantive” evidence was needed to arrest Saeed. India’s demand for voice samples of the 26/11 accused on trial in Pakistan was also shot down by Mr Malik, who cited “legal compulsions”. New Delhi stepped up pressure when the Indian security brass did some plain speaking in a closed-door meeting with the Pakistani side, asking them to immediately act against Saeed and, citing continued terror threats to India, crack down on Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
MHA officials also rejected Pakistan’s contention that “hard evidence” against Saeed was lacking, saying sufficient evidence had been given to Islamabad to act against Saeed and others. Mr Shinde also called off the joint press conference and no joint statement, the practice immediately after a bilateral dialogue concludes, was issued.
On Friday night, an MHA delegation of NIA and CBI officials had handed over fresh evidence of Saeed’s 26/11 role, including disclosures by Abu Jundal, accused of being a LeT terrorist.
Emails cracked by American agencies in the David Headley case, which pointed towards LeT’s direct involvement in 26/11, were also handed over.
The MHA sought an assurance on an early visit of an Indian team to Islamabad to gather 26/11 evidence while allowing a second visit by a Pakistani judicial commission to “cross-examine” four 26/11 witnesses.
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