Islamabad: Pakistan has asked India to
provide "credible evidence" against those accused in the 2008
Mumbai terror attacks so that they cannot secure their release
from courts, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Friday.
Pakistan took action against Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz
Mohammad Saeed and others accused of involvement in the Mumbai
attack on the basis of evidence provided by India but the
suspects were released because the information given by New
Delhi was "vague and insufficient", Malik claimed.
"Pakistan is ready to take action on the information
provided by India, which is also compulsory in the court,"
Malik told the media on the sidelines of an official function
at the Police Lines.
Responding to a question about the activities of Hafiz
Saeed, who has been blamed by India for masterminding the
Mumbai attacks, Malik said the JuD chief had been freed by a
court.
There is democracy in Pakistan and the courts are free to
decide independently, he contended.
Though Saeed was put under house arrest after the Mumbai
attacks, he was freed about six months later on the orders of
the Lahore High Court.
Though seven persons, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander
Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, were arrested by Pakistani authorities
on charges of planning and financing the Mumbai attacks, their
trial in an anti-terrorism court has stalled for a variety of
reasons.
Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai recently refuted
Malik’s claim that New Delhi had provided insufficient
evidence about the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 25, 2011, 21:32