Pakistan has vested interest in protecting Saeed: Krishna

Ahead of his meeting with Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that Pakistan has a vested interest in blocking the inquiry into the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and is safeguarding terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

Ahead of his meeting with Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that Pakistan has a vested interest in blocking the inquiry into the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and is safeguarding terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

HT Image

"It's an orchestrated voice emanating from Pakistan. They have a vested interest in safeguarding Hafiz Saeed. We have no doubt that Saeed is the brain behind the 26/11 attacks and have evidence to prove it," Krishna told TV news channel Headlines Today in an interview.

Krishna also underlined that terrorism would remain his focus when he meets Qureshi at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

"We are continuously engaging Pakistan on terrorism although we may not be talking to each other on other issues," he said.
"We have got to have lots of patience when dealing with troublesome neighbours like Pakistan. India is too big, too strong to get frustrated," Krishna replied when asked whether India's patience was running out in the face of Pakistan's reluctance to act against the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage.

Krishna's remarks underline New Delhi's unhappiness with Pakistan's lack of adequate action against anti-India terrorists and its perceived vacillation in prosecuting the perpetrators and masterminds of the Mumbai attacks, especially Saeed. The terror attacks left over 170 people, including many foreigners, dead.

Krishna last month said that action against persons like Saeed will convince New Delhi of Islamabad's seriousness in tackling cross-border terror.

New Delhi has made it clear many a time that it has given enough evidence to convict Saeed, the founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba that later turned into Jamaat ud-Dawa, in a court of law.

Last month, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had handed over to Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik the sixth dossier on the November 2008 terror attacks that specifically included "additional information" on Saeed.