India fumes at Pak move to let Hafiz Saeed off the hook

New Delhi: India on Monday reacted furiously to the Pakistan government’s decision not to seek an extension in detention of Hafiz Saeed, a UN-designated terrorist, Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, under the anti-terror law, with top sources in New Delhi saying that “such duplicitous actions need condemnation from all quarters” and adding that it reflects Pakistan’s lack of will to act against terrorism.

Earlier, Saeed was facing detention under two provisions  — anti-terrorism and maintenance of public law and order. Now, Pakistan has dropped terror charges against him.

Indian sources told this newspaper, “It is surprising that instead of prosecuting him for heading and directing a terrorist organisation, Pakistan is putting him under house arrest for maintenance of public law and order... Such duplicitous actions need condemnation from all quarters.”

“It only reflects the lack of will on the part of Pakistan to fulfil its international obligations to take effective actions against internationally proscribed terrorists,” they said, hitting out at the neighbour’s decision to now detain Saeed only under milder provisions for maintenance of public law and order.

Islamabad’s move is being seen by foreign policy-watchers as a blatant attempt to provoke India by virtually refusing to take adequate action against Saeed.

The horrific 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008 by Pakistani terrorists and the need to bring to book those who planned the attack from Pakistani soil has been consistently taken up by New Delhi with Islamabad but to no avail.

The dropping of terror provisions against Saeed is also being seen as a message from Pakistan to India in the context of the rock-bottom ties between the two nations and the Pakistan Army’s strategy of continuing to push terrorists into Jammu & Kashmir from across the Line of Control (LoC).

Since Saeed is viewed as a strategic asset by the Pakistan Army, the civilian government there seems reluctant to take action against him.

According to news agency reports from Pakistan on Saturday, the government in Pakistan’s Punjab province had withdrawn its request that day for extending the detention of Saeed under the anti- terrorism law.

On January 31, Saeed and his four aides had been detained by the Pakistani Punjab government for 90 days under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. They have been under house arrest since then.

Explaining as to why the Pakistan government withdrew its application, a senior official of the Pakistani Punjab government had told a news agency that since Islamabad had extended the detention of Saeed and four others till 24 October under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, 1960, it did not require to keep them under house arrest under the anti-terrorism law.