Interpol issues notice seeking militant behind Mumbai attacks

Aug 26, 2009, 8:32 GMT

   New Delhi - Global police agency Interpol has issued an international wanted notice for Hafiz Saeed, founder of an Islamic militant group accused of masterminding last year's Mumbai carnage, news reports said Wednesday.

   The Red Corner Notice was issued Tuesday night against Saeed, chief of the Pakistan-based charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, suspected of being a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group blamed by India for the attacks, the Hindustan Times daily reported.

   At least 166 people including 26 foreign nationals were killed in India's financial hub in three-day long gun-and-bomb attacks beginning November 26.

   The radical cleric has been charged in India with masterminding the attacks but he remains free in Pakistan after the High Court in Lahore released him in early June, saying there were insufficient grounds to detain him.

   The Pakistani government has appealed the court ruling even as Saeed maintains that he was not involved in the Mumbai attacks.

   The notice makes it obligatory for Pakistani authorities to arrest him and hand him over to India, the newspaper report said.

   'It means wherever he might currently be, whether Pakistan or anywhere else, that country's authorities are legally obliged to arrest and hand him over to India for the probe,' Harsh Bhal, spokesman for India's Central Bureau of Investigation, told the daily.

   Interpol has also issued a similar notice against Pakistan-based Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, suspected of being a key planner of the attacks.

   A special court in Mumbai has already issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Saeed and Lakhvi and 20 others for their alleged roles in the attacks.

   India has so far provided Pakistan with five dossiers of information on the attacks including information on suspects and logistics.

   India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said his government had information that terrorist groups in Pakistan were planning fresh attacks on Indian soil.

   But Islamabad has demanded more proof. Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said if India does not provide additional information on the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan will not be responsible for any future terrorist attacks in India, the NDTV network reported.

   Tensions escalated between the two nuclear-armed neighbours after the Mumbai attacks, to the point where New Delhi suspended the 5-year-old peace process aimed at improving relations and solving contentious issues.