ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s supreme court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision to release an Islamist militant whom India accuses of masterminding the 2008 assault on Mumbai, dismissing a government appeal.
India has expressed dismay over the decision, though analysts say it is unlikely to derail a recent agreement between the leaders of two countries to get talks going to tackle long-running disputes.
Pakistan’s central government and a provincial government had challenged the release by a high court last year of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group. But the supreme court quashed the appeals, saying the government had failed to provide sufficient evidence against him.
“There is a sense of disappointment,” Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said. “We regard Hafiz Mohammad Saeed as one of the masterminds of the Mumbai attacks.”
The Pakistani court decision came shortly after the two countries agreed to resume talks that had been frozen by India since the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed.
“Whereas India will express its resentment . . . I don’t think it will change the present climate and desire of the two countries to move forward at least on engagement,” said analyst Talat Masood.
India blames the LeT group for the co-ordinated assault by 10 militants on its financial capital in November 2008. Indian security forces killed nine of the militants while the 10th, a Pakistani, was caught alive. An Indian court sentenced him to death this month.
Pakistan has acknowledged that the Mumbai attack was plotted and partly launched from its soil and has put on trial seven suspects, including a senior commander of the LeT, for their roles in the assault. However, Pakistan says India has not provided sufficient evidence to prosecute Saeed, who also leads an Islamist charity, Jamaat-ud-Dawa. – (Reuters)