By IANS,
New Delhi: Even after New Delhi gave Islamabad seven dossiers about the role of Hafiz Saeed, the suspected mastermind of the 26/11 attacks, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has asked India for more evidence in order to act against him.
“We need further information about his role in that incident and at the same time we need more evidence to put him to task,” Gilani told CNN-IBN news channel in an interview.
The Pakistan prime minister was responding to a question on whether his government will be open to India’s request to arrest Saeed for his alleged involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 that killed 166 people.
Gilani claimed that Saeed was already under trial and a decision on arresting him has to be taken by the court.
Acknowledging several dossiers India gave linking Pakistani nationals with the Mumbai mayhem, Gilani made it clear that more information was needed to build up a convincing case for penalising the perpetrators of the carnage.
“We appreciate that, but at the same time we ask for something more, and we hope we will be getting that evidence,” he said.
Gilani, however, assured that his country would not allow its soil to be used for terrorist activities against India.
“We have given this assurance. We are fighting our own war on terror, we have to face Mumbai like attacks on a daily basis,” he said.
India has made Pakistan’s action against Saeed a touchstone of Islamabad’s sincerity in bringing the Mumbai attackers to justice. Saeed is the chief of the outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an Islamic charity that served as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
New Delhi has also made it clear many a time that it has given sufficient evidence to Islamabad to prosecute Saeed, a demagogue known for his virulent anti-India speeches.
Last year, a Lahore court freed Saeed, citing lack of evidence against him.