The Asian Age – Hafiz was never held in 26/11 case

Namrata Biji Ahuja, Asian Age Correspondent

Delhi, 18 December 2012. Pakistan’s lie on Lashkar-e-Tayyaba patron and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed stands exposed as documents provided by Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik to the Union home ministry clearly show Islamabad never detained or arrested Saeed in the 26/11 terror attack case.

During his just-concluded India visit, Mr Malik had turned down New Delhi’s request for action against Saeed, arguing there was lack of “credible evidence” against the 26/11 mastermind who had repeatedly been acquitted by the Pakistani courts. The fact that none of the three cases referred to by Mr Malik involved Saeed’s role in 26/11 has widened a trust deficit between the two nations on whether Islamabad is deliberately brushing aside New Delhi’s concerns under pressure from the ISI, top security officials said.

“For us, Saeed’s involvement in 26/11 can expose the Laskhar-ISI nexus. Saeed’s quitting LeT in 2001, months before Pakistan imposed a ban on it, indicates there was a move to give him safe passage,” the officials remarked.

Nailing Pakistan’s lie, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday told Parliament that Mr Malik appeared to have been “misinformed in the matter of Hafiz Saeed”. “We had been given to understand by the interior minister of Pakistan that Mr Hafiz Saeed had been arrested on charges of being a part of the conspiracy for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks,” he said, adding, “From the papers given to us, it is clear that the detentions of Saeed in these cases were for other reasons and not for his role as a conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.” he said.

http://www.asianage.com/india/hafiz-was-never-held-2611-case-833

Dawn – Treason petition filed against Rehman Malik in Supreme Court

Karachi, 18 December 2012. A petition was filed against Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s tour of India, alleging illegal use of taxpayers’ money for the tour and for offering hospitality to the family of Sarabjit Singh at the Karachi registry of the Supreme Court on Tuesday, DawnNews reported.

The petitioner has called for the recovery of the expenses incurred on Malik’s tour, stating that the funds utilised for the tour were spent from the national treasury and therefore, should be returned by the federal interior minister.

The petition also claimed that Malik caused great embarrassment to the people of Pakistan by announcing that visas would be granted to the family members of the jailed Indian spy, Sarabjit Singh, who is allegedly responsible for a large number of Pakistani deaths.

The petition added that the interior minister vowed to extend hospitality to Singh’s family, which was detrimental to national interests.

Moreover, the petition maintained the stance that the initiatives taken in India between the Indian delegation and Rehman Malik were illegal.

The petition requested the Supreme Court to try Rehman Malik for treason under Articles 5 and 6 of the Constitution.

http://dawn.com/2012/12/18/treason-petition-filed-against-rehman-malik-in-sc/

The Tribune – Malik blames Indian, Pakistan agencies for failing to prevent 26/11 attacks

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 16. Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik today said the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks happened because both India and Pakistan were not interacting and sharing information with each other.

“We failed to prevent 26/11 because we were not talking to each other,” said Malik while delivering a lecture at the Observor Research Foundation during the last day of his visit.

Malik said Pakistani-American terrorist David Headley was a triple agent. “A US passport holder, Headley conspired with Al-Qaida terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri, a retired major of Pakistan Army and three Indian terrorists – Abu Jundal, Jabbiullah and Fahim Ansari – and plotted India’s worst terror attack,” he said.

Malik said Jundal, arrested in Saudi Arabia and deported to India, has confessed to have met Headley, who, in turn, was in touch with Kashmiri.

“So it is not a state-sponsored drama, a state-sponsored action. It is an action by non-state actors. Triangular nexus between Headley, (Ilyas) Kashmiri, the enemy of Pakistan, a Major who deserted the Pakistan Army, having joined LeT and of course the three Indians,” he said.

“Headley was interacting with Indian and Pakistani non-state actors to coordinate the attacks. But for whom he was coordinating? Who was the third party,” questioned Malik. Headley, Malik said, was once arrested by the drug enforcement agency (DEA) of the US. “But how he managed to operate freely is a mystery. He came from the US. He had money and credit cards. He moved all over and even managed to create a social circle,” said Malik.

“All this should have come to the attention of some agencies. But the agencies failed, both here and Pakistan. We failed because we were not interacting,” he said.

Referring to Jundal, who was present in LeT control room during 26/11 attack, Malik said: “He was a known criminal, having been charged in many cases. He also worked as one of the sources of a very elite agency of India. Now, see, he has used agencies also and went rogue. Put it another way, you become a source, you become a double agent.

While he is working, living in India, he might have gone rogue and then went to Pakistan.”

On Ilyas Kashmiri, Malik said, he was a part of the conspiracy to kill former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto. On Hafiz Saeed, one of the suspects in the Mumbai attacks, Malik said: “The determination of Pakistan is very much there to arrest him but with evidence.”

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121217/main2.htm

BBC News – Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik hails India ties

Friday, 14 December 2012. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that relations with India have improved since the 2008 Mumbai attacks and there is “growing interaction” between the two countries.

On arrival in Delhi he said that he had a “message of peace and love from the children, women and men, old and young of Pakistan” for the people of India.

Mr Malik signed a new visa agreement with India at the start of his visit.

The deal was agreed after talks between India and Pakistan in September.

‘Forget the dark days’

India suspended peace talks with Islamabad after the attacks on Mumbai, its financial capital, in which 175 people died.

The attack was blamed by India on the Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group.

Delhi wants LeT founder Hafiz Saeed – who lives openly in Pakistan – to be extradited. But Mr Malik said on Friday that his country would only do so if the Indian authorities acquired proof of his guilt that would stand up in court.

He said that Pakistani authorities had arrested Mr Saeed three times, but on each occasion the courts had found him innocent and freed him.

The interior minister’s three-day visit comes less than a month after India executed Pakistani-born Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks.

Mr Malik insisted that it was now necessary to forget the “dark days”. He said that he hoped the visa agreement would trigger more interaction between the people of both nations.

“The journey towards peace is progressing very well, especially with the new visa regime, it will also bring a lot of good for us… Let us not create any negativity,” he said.

Cricketing ties

The agreement makes it easier for business travellers to get visas quickly and easier for people aged over 65 in both countries to get “on arrival” visas. It also enables members of divided families, tourists and pilgrims to obtain visas speedily instead of waiting for months.

“When Indians enter Pakistan and Pakistanis enter India, they should feel like they are coming home,” Mr Malik said.

The interior minister is expected to hold talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday, according to the state broadcaster, Doordarshan.

His trip comes ahead of Pakistan’s first cricket series in India for five years.

India is likely to issue 3,000 visas to Pakistani cricket fans attending a short limited-overs tour beginning on 25 December.

Correspondents say the move to resume cricketing ties is a further sign of improving relations between the two countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-20722791

Dawn – Malik meets Manmohan: Mention of Babri mosque, Muslims’ killings irks BJP

New Delhi, 16 December 2012. Interior Minister Rehman Malik invited angry rejoinders from India’s right-wing Hindu opposition on Saturday after he told his hosts at home ministry in New Delhi that the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and the anti-Muslim violence it spawned were undesirable events.

Some TV channels projected Mr Malik’s remarks late on Friday as an attempt to equate the Ayodhya outrage with the Mumbai carnage of November 2008. He denied it was his intention to juxtapose the two events in any unacceptable way.

A reported text of his Friday comment seemed to support his claim. “We do not want any 9/11. We do not want any Bombay blasts, we do not want any Samjhauta Express, we do not want any Babri mosque issue and we can work together not only for peace in Pakistan and India but also for the region,” Mr Malik had said in New Delhi.

An official judicial probe into the aftermath of Ayodhya had shown 1,500 people were killed, 1,829 injured and 165 missing in the gruesome violence in Mumbai for which the report put the blame on the Shiv Sena and its followers in the city police.

Mr Malik’s comments came just ahead of a report in ‘The Hindu’, which quoted a 1992 top aide of then prime minister Narasimha Rao as saying that he had wanted the mosque to be replaced by a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. Rao “wanted the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya through an ‘apolitical’ trust and prepared an ‘unshakeable’ master plan. He believed this could be done by the trust that could enjoy ‘acceptability’ from all corners of the Hindu religion,” his media adviser P.V.R.K. Prasad was quoted as saying.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley slammed the UPA government for not responding to Mr Malik’s Babri Masjid statement immediately.

“The senior minister present should have contested that statement rather than him (Malik) having to clarify his statements,” Mr Jaitley said.

Mr Malik, who is on a three-day visit to the country, also said that Pakistan had initiated investigation into Mumbai attacks and made arrests even before India brought up the issue. He added that Pakistan was not backing any terrorist group, including Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Earlier, Mr Malik, who termed the talks with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde ‘successful’, had created another controversy in the media by saying he was unsure whether India’s Kargil war hero Captain Saurabh Malik had been killed by a Pakistani bullet or the weather.

Interacting with mediapersons on Saturday, Mr Malik said: “Today, I humbly submitted to him (Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) that people of Pakistan, specially people from the village where he was born and attended school, want to see him.”

He said Pakistani people and “his childhood friends want to see a person who is not only the prime minister of India, but also a visionary leader of the world”.

Dr Singh, however, said that people in New Delhi asked about the culprits of 26/11. “So, I explained to him and want to tell the people of this country also that there will be no delay from our side; whenever the judicial commission submits its report after cross examination, we will conclude the trial in a very short duration of time,” Mr Malik added.

Agencies add: Meanwhile, speaking at a lunch hosted by the president of the Confederation of Indian Bar, Pravin H. Parekh, Mr Malik said there was a growing interaction between Pakistan and India as their joint efforts in eliminating terrorism would help bring peace and stability to the region. “Both sides are facing scourge of terrorism and extremism and have suffered financial as well as precious human lives loss and it is time that we should make efforts for peace and root out the menace of terrorism to ensure secure atmosphere for the coming generations.”

The minister said authorities had arrested Hafiz Saeed Ahmed three times, but the courts had to grant him bail as no convincing evidence was available. “If India has strong evidence against Hafiz Saeed for his alleged involvement in Mumbai attacks, I would order his arrest immediately before leaving India,” he added.

Mr Malik also held meetings with Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj and National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon.

http://dawn.com/2012/12/16/malik-meets-manmohan-mention-of-babri-mosque-muslims-killings-irks-bjp/

The Tribune – Pakistan promises action against Hafiz Saeed; Malik says 26/11 attacks, Babri must never recur

Ajay Banerjee, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 14. Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik began his three-day visit to India on Friday with a reference to the demolition of Babri Masjid. In a way, he equated the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya with terror incidents, saying his country didn’t want incidents such as the Mumbai terror attacks, the Samjhauta train blasts or the Babri mosque demolition.

Sharing dais with Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde at a ceremony to operationalise a new visa regime, he said the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, including Hafiz Saeed, would be brought to justice.

The fact that he spoke about the Babri mosque in the same breath as some of the globally decried terror incidents was not lost on the Indian authorities. As soon as Malik ended his 10-minute speech, Shinde retorted by saying that such promises on 26/11 accused had been made in the past also, but these were never honoured.

“We can work together,” said Malik while repeatedly referring to Shinde as his brother. “I have brought a message of peace from Pakistan. We have seen enough on both sides. This is the time we should work together. Forgetting the past, we have to move forward,” he said. “We have taken the Mumbai attacks seriously and arrested seven of them (accused). Another 20 are proclaimed offenders.

Every time your government raises this demand, people in Pakistan ask what happened in the Samjhauta train blast case,” he added. Persons associated with right wing Indian groups had been facing trial, but nobody had been convicted so far, he added.

On Hafiz Saeed, he said, “I can assure the Indian authorities that we will not leave any stone unturned. The day is not far when you will see his conviction and justice being done.”

Saeed routinely spews venom against India while speaking from public platforms in Pakistan. Seven persons, including Saeed, are facing trial in a Rawalpindi court. The authorities had arrested Saeed thrice so far, but every time he was let off for want of evidence. India is relying on the testimonies of David Coleman Headley and Ajmal Kasab.

Referring to the 26/11 trial in Pakistan, Malik said, “We have made every effort to fast track the case.”

Speaking at the airport about Army Captain Saurabh Kalia who was allegedly tortured by Pakistani soldiers during the Kargil war, Malik said while he didn’t know whether a Pakistani bullet killed Kalia, it was regrettable and that he didn’t want such incidents to be repeated.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20121215/main1.htm