Pakistani and Indian officials play down release of top militant

Jun 13, 2009, 12:48 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistani and Indian authorities on Saturday agreed to tone down their differences over the release of the founder of an Islamic charity suspected of being a front for a group accused of the Mumbai attacks, a Pakistani official said.

Hafiz Mohammad Saeed was placed under house arrest after the United Nations banned the charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) as a political front for the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is accused of being behind the November 26 attacks in Mumbai.

He was released after a Pakistani court ruled that the government did not have any evidence against Saeed. India received the verdict with 'disappointment.'

But Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Indian High Commissioner Sharat Sabharwal in a meeting that New Delhi should not press for the re-arrest of Saeed, as it would hamper the fight against terrorists and extremists.

According to an official at Pakistan's Interior Ministry, Malik said Islamabad could not keep Hafiz Saeed because India had not provided any evidence linking him directly to the Mumbai attacks.

'If India wants us to re-arrest him, it should provide solid evidence or else avoid making it a political issue,' Malik was quoted as saying by the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

'Both sides agreed to play down the issue of Hafiz Saeed,' an official at Indian High Commission in Islamabad confirmed.

Malik assured the Indian diplomat that Pakistan was serious in bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai tragedy to justice by following the due process of law.

Pakistani has already arrested the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attack and a senior leader of LeT, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, along with seven associates.

The trial has yet to begin as the two countries have not completed the exchange of information about the attack.

The Mumbai attacks which left over 170 people dead further soured relatiions between the two nuclear-armed rivals, leading to military escalation and suspension of five-year-old peace process aimed at easing relations and solving contentious issues.

It prompted Pakistan to move troops fighting terrorists in north- western areas to eastern borders along India, a move that greatly disturbed the US, which has been urging India to restart diplomatic engagement with Pakistan.

India has said it will not resume the peace dialogue until those involved in the Mumbai attack are punished.

As what is now seen as a major thaw in tension, the Indian Prime Minister and Pakistani President are set to meet on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) next week in Russia.