Islamabad, Nov 26: 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.
