Jamaat asks Rehman Malik to cancel India visit

Islamabad: Pakistan`s fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party has asked Interior Minister Rehman Malik to call off his visit to New Delhi saying India would again demand the handing over of JuD chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Jamaat-e-Islami chief Syed Munawar Hasan said Malik should not go ahead with the visit to India tomorrow as New Delhi would again raise its demand for the deportation of Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Saeed. Hasan described India`s demand as "absurd and unjust" and said Malik should cancel his visit in protest. India has been repeating the demand to hand over Saeed only to keep Islamabad under pressure and Pakistan should give a "firm reply", Hasan said in a statement. India, he claimed, had failed to prove Saeed`s involvement in the Mumbai attacks. At the same time, Hasan claimed Pakistani authorities were keeping Indian death row prisoner Sarabjeet Singh as an "honoured guest" even after a court had pronounced him guilty. India, on the other hand, had promptly hanged Ajmal Kasab, he said. Hasan also opposed Islamabad`s efforts to normalise trade relations with Delhi, claiming India was trying to isolate and destroy Pakistan. Indian officials have described Saeed, for whom the US offered a 10-million dollar reward this year, as the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. Saeed was placed under house arrest for less than six months after the Mumbai incident and released on the orders of the Lahore High Court. Malik, will arrive in New Delhi tomorrow for a two-day visit and will be accompanied by a 15-member delegation. PTI