New Delhi: Reacting to the “listing” of terrorist Hafiz Saeed under the Anti-Terrorism Act in Pakistan by authorities there, India on Monday said action against him “is a logical first step” in bringing him to justice.
New Delhi seems to be waiting and watching whether Pakistan this time is really serious about action against Saeed or whether Islamabad is once again trying to deceive the world.
Foreign policy watchers believe that American pressure on Islamabad to act against terrorists sponsored for long by the Pakistan Army seems to be bearing fruit despite suspicions that Pakistan is only carrying out symbolic acts to relieve the pressure on its dubious record. Islamabad is running scared that the new Trump Administration will ban Pakistani citizens from entering the country.
Nevertheless, there is a possibility that India and Pakistan could move closer once again to resuming the composite dialogue and peace process if New Delhi is convinced that the Nawaz Sharif government is taking firm action against terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar.
“Hafiz Saeed is an international terrorist, the mastermind of Mumbai terrorist attack and responsible for unleashing wave of terrorism against Pakistan’s neighbours through LeT/ JuD and their affiliates. Effective action mandated internationally against him and his terrorist organisations and colleagues is a logical first step in bringing them to justice, and in ridding our region of the twin menaces of terrorism and violent extremism,” the ministry of external affairs said on Monday.
According to news agency reports, Saeed, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief, is currently under house arrest in Pakistan.
The Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 empowers the Pakistan government to mark a person as “proscribed” and to place that person on the fourth schedule on an ex-parte basis.
