Washington: Hafiz Saeed, the 26/11 mastermind, will be prosecuted if India provides incriminating evidence against him, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said today, emphasising that Islamabad wants to close the chapter on Mumbai as soon as possible.
Responding to a question on the Mumbai terrorist attack, Khar said Saeed is free now because the courts let him go because the evidence that was presented against him wasn`t good enough, it seemed.
Asked if incriminating evidence is provided, will you prosecute Saeed, she said, "Certainly, absolutely. Why not? Absolutely -- 100 per cent."
Pakistan is also determined to close this chapter as soon as possible, Khar told the popular Charlie Rose Show on the PBS news channel.
Khar is in New York to attend a meeting of the UN Security Council, of which Pakistan is the chairman of the month of January.
"I just wanted to say that to be able to -- now I have repeatedly said this to my counterpart and to everyone in India. That the Indian judicial system and the Pakistani judicial system is pretty much as identical as any two judicial systems anywhere in the world, pretty much.
We are both from the colonial, so pretty much the same. I have said this repeatedly and you know, I say this again in your presence also that any evidence that he was a mastermind or he was a propagator or he was party, which we I have no reason to deny, OK," she said.
"But have you seen evidence yourself?" she was asked.
"Any evidence which will hold in the court of law, apparently evidence was presented in the court of law which did not hold so they know very well what can hold in the court of law and what cannot. So we are interested as the state of Pakistan, we are interested in closing the chapter on Mumbai ASAP, as soon as possible," Khar said.
India blamed Saeed for masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people.
PTI
