Krishna told journalists here that New Delhi was in touch with Islamabad on the probe into the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, last year. He made the remarks a day after India handed over to Pakistan a fresh dossier containing information related to the terrorist attacks, particularly more evidences on the role of the Lahore-based Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed in the carnage.
“We are in constant touch with the government of Pakistan. It is an ongoing exercise between India and Pakistan. So, as and when we collect more evidence, we will keep sending it across to Pakistan,” Krishna said.
New Delhi believes the JuD chief is one of the masterminds of the 26/11 attacks. Saeed was put under house arrest by the Pakistani government on December 11, last year, after the United Nations, in the wake of the attacks in Mumbai, included him along with three others and the JuD itself, in the list of individuals and organisations known to support al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
He was released by the Lahore High Court on June 3 last. New Delhi has been claiming that it has provided Islamabad enough evidence to prosecute Saeed. It also accused Islamabad of dilly-dallying with the trial of the influential cleric. But the Pakistani government has been claiming the evidences provided by India were not enough.
India, however, is yet to respond to Pakistan’s invitation to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao to travel to Islamabad for parleys with her counterpart Salman Bashir.
New Delhi and Islamabad had decided during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Yousuf Raza Gilani, in the Egyptian city of Sharm-El-Sheikh on July 16 last that the foreign secretaries would meet as often as possible to review the progress of the probe into 26/11 attacks and report to the foreign ministers before they meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next month.
Sources said New Delhi’s response to the invitation from Islamabad would depend on the latter’s actions on the fresh dossier on Saeed, progress on its probe into the 26/11 attacks and trial of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and three others, who were arrested in Pakistan for their role in plotting the Mumbai carnage.
Though the Indo-Pak joint statement issued in Sharm-El-Sheikh delinked composite dialogue between the two neighbours and action on terror, New Delhi has already made it clear that talks could not be meaningful unless Islamabad takes credible action on the 26/11 plotters.