New Delhi: India is not impressed by Pakistan’s action against Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the man it suspects is behind the Mumbai terror attack, or the house arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.
This is the third time Azhar has been detained. On the previous two occasions, he managed to bounce back to spew more anti-India rhetoric after being released.
Azhar was one of the men freed in exchange for the passengers of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacked to Kandahar on Christmas-eve in 1999.
While India has refused to publicly make the point, government officials said the house arrests had been done before and did not amount to much.
“This is a token gesture and really does not impress us,” an official said. He said the US and international pressure had forced Islamabad to place these two men under detention and the restrictions on their movement would be lifted as soon as the pressure was off.
India wants Lakhvi and Azhar handed over to investigators here.
Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon are the two others on New Delhi’s wanted list. Both accused of the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993 are living in Karachi, but Pakistan again said the Indian citizens are not there.
Pakistan’s reply to India’s demarche was received late on Monday evening. It was handed over to India’s envoy Satyabrata Pal by foreign secretary Salman Bashir. Islamabad once again said it was willing to cooperate in the investigation into the Mumbai attack and offered to send a team to assist the probe, but stood its ground on handing over any Pakistani national for questioning.
This is understandable because there will be a huge public outcry if that happens. The reply also says Pakistan won’t allow its territory to be used by terror groups against India.
Pakistan’s ruling party gave a political twist to the arrests by insisting that no action was being taken either under US or Indian pressure. “The arrests are being made for our own investigation and even if allegations are proved against any suspect, he will not be handed over to India,” foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in Multan on Tuesday.
He also said as there was no extradition treaty with India, there was no question of handing over those detained.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
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