India hands Pakistan fresh evidence against JuD chief Saeed
A Pakistani soldier patrols Mingora, the main town of Swat valley, on Saturday. Schools reopened in Pakistan's restive northwest after nearly three months of closure due to fighting between the military and Taliban militants. Photo: AFP
India on Saturday handed over to Pakistan a fresh dossier of evidence to investigate the Mumbai terror attacks and prosecute Hafiz Saeed, the suspected mastermind of the three-day carnage that killed 166 people.
The seven-page dossier was given to Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner here Riffat Masood by the External Affairs Ministry Joint Secretary TCA Raghavan.
The new dossier of evidence was given nearly three weeks after Pakistan gave India an update on its investigation on last November's attacks and sought more information.
India's new Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters here on Saturday evening that New Delhi expected a "meaningful response" from Islamabad after the latest dossier.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram earlier told mediapersons that the dossier has "enough evidence" for Pakistan to continue the probe against Saeed who heads Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) charity, which the United Nations said in December was a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), an outlawed militant group accused of carrying out the assault on India's financial capital.
"The evidence provided in the dossiers to Pakistan is sufficient to investigate the role of Hafiz Saeed. There is enough evidence to continue the investigation against Saeed," said Chidambaram.
The dossier is a 7-page document, which answers questions raised by Pakistan on an earlier evidence provided by India, he added.
"Pakistan is asking for answers to questions which are already there. Nevertheless, I have taken the trouble of dictating the (new) response," Chidambaram said adding India had already given enough evidence to Pakistan to arrest and prosecute Saeed who was put under house arrest in December but was released in June by a Pakistani court that said there was no evidence against him.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik had recently said that Saeed could not be prosecuted because India had not provided sufficient proof.
Sources said the fresh Indian dossier of evidence would help in tightening the case against Saeed.
Pakistan has acknowledged the coordinated attacks on Mumbai in November last year were launched and partly planned from Pakistan's soil, and that the sole surviving attacker Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, under arrest in Mumbai, was a Pakistani national.
Sources said Pakistan had sought certified copies of Kasab's confession to the crime and expert testimonies of conversations between the attackers and their handlers in Pakistan.
India also handed over interrogation reports of two Indian LeT operatives Fahim Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed who had helped provide support for the Mumbai terror attacks.
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