By IANS,
New Delhi : Home Minister P. Chidamabaram has accused Pakistan of deliberately holding back investigations into the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks despite concrete evidence against the conspirators being presented to Islamabad linking Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed to the carnage that killed over 170 people.
“They have not arrested the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack. They are still on Pakistani soil. We have shared the names with them. They are not investigating the case.
We have shared complete evidence. The trial has not opened yet. We are thoroughly and totally dissatisfied with the Pakistani response,” Chidambaram told Al Jazeera news channel in an interview.
Chidambaram also revealed publicly for the first time the contents of the dossiers that have been handed over to the Pakistani authorities and details of the LeT chief’s involvement in the Nov 26-29, 2008 attacks.
“The evidence we have presented tells any investigator, any prosecutor, what Hafiz Saeed did, where he was, who he met, what he told them (the attackers) and who is doing what. If that is not evidence to continue the investigation against Hafiz Saeed, what else is evidence?” Chidambaram wondered.
“(In) December 2007 and January 2008 he was in a place where Kasab and others were trained. He spoke with the trainees on many occasions. He visited another training camp on a mountain of Muzaffarabad (in Pakistan-administered Kashmir)… He visited the camp and met the trainees and was accompanied by another person known as Major General Sahad,” the home minister maintained.
“He gave them new names and Kasab was given (the name of) Abu Mujahid. The name was given by Hafiz Saeed.”
“Then, they underwent marine training at a training camp and Hafiz Saeed was there too. I can go on.. places, dates, names, conversations. Now, if a prosecution is unwilling to take this as prima facie evidence, investigate further, visit the places..What is the prosecution in Pakistan doing?”
Asked if India sees Pakistan “deliberately” stifling the investigation by failing to follow up on the evidence given by New Delhi, the home minister said: “Yes, regretably that is the answer. Yes.”
India has given six dossiers to Pakistan after the 26/11 carnage, during which nine of the 10 terrorists who attacked India’s financial and entertainment capital were killed. The lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Amir alias Kasab, is currently being tried in a Mumbai court.
Saeed is viewed as the mastermind of the carnage but Pakistan has repeatedly refused to arrest him because it says India has failed to produce conclusive evidence against him.