'Ridiculous' to compare Pillai with Saeed: Congress

The Congress today termed as "ridiculous" Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's attempt to equate Home Secretary GK Pillai's statement on the 2008 Mumbai terror attack with LeT chief Hafeez Saeed's anti-India hate speeches.

The Congress on Friday termed as "ridiculous" Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's attempt to equate Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai's statement on the 2008 Mumbai terror attack with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafeez Saeed's anti-India hate speeches.

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"I don't think there is any basis for comparison of statements by Hafiz Saeed or Salahuddin with the home secretary. That would be ridiculous," Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here, a day after the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan held talks in Islamabad.

The almost seven-hour meeting ended with no common ground with the two sides reiterating their known positions on thorny issues such as Kashmir.

When asked about Saeed's hate speeches in Pakistan, Qureshi countered by bringing up Pillai and his allegations that Pakistan's intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was involved in the 26/11 Mumbai strike.

"Tell me, to what extent it helped (our dialogue)? It was uncalled for," Qureshi said.

Singhvi said the "home secretary was simply making a statement of fact about what India's stand has been. It is only India's stand and there can be no comparison".