After talks, dispute on what was talked

NEW DELHI: In what could reinforce the impression that the recent Indo-Pak foreign secretary level talks was nothing more than a photo-op, India and Pakistan are engaged in a verbal dual over the contents of the discussions.

Pakistan has claimed that India never sought the arrest of Jamaat ud Dawa chief and the Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. India reacted angrily to this, saying that it sought stern action against the jihadi leader who enjoys “unhindered public space and freedom in Pakistan”.

The spat between the two countries comes just two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament that dialogue was the only way forward. But Islamabad’s response clearly suggests that his government’s Pakistani policy continues to be reality-challenged.

Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had on Saturday told a meeting at Multan that India had not asked for Saeed’s arrest and that the matter was not raised in the latest Indo-Pak engagement on February 26. “You will be surprised that they made no demand (for the arrest of Saeed),’’ Mr Qureshi was quoted as saying in the Pakistani media.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash expressed surprise at the Pakistani foreign minister’s statement saying that India has consistently demanded action against Saeed, who is the main accused in the Mumbai terror attacks.

“India has been demanding action against Saeed, one of the masterminds of the Mumbai terrorist attack, since the barbaric and dastardly attack took place,’’ Mr Prakash said and added that Saeed’s anti-India rhetoric had also been taken up strongly during the foreign secretary level talks.

``Saeed’s activities including his recent vitriolic and venomous statements aimed at fomenting further acts of terrorism against India and the unhindered public space and freedom he enjoys in Pakistan was raised strongly by India during the Foreign Secretary-level talks,’’ he said.

The MEA spokesperson also reminded Pakistan that India had handed over a dossier containing evidence of Hafiz Saeed’s involvement in 26/11 on August 21, 2009, and that further information on the LeT founder was provided in a dossier that was handed over during the foreign secretary level talks.

``A dossier containing a compilation of evidence on the involvement of Hafiz Saeed in the terrorist attack was handed over to Pakistan on August 21, 2009, and his name featured prominently in yet another dossier handed over to the Pakistan foreign secretary during the talks on February 25, 2010,’’ Mr Prakash said.

Pakistan’s inaction on Saeed has continued to irk India which has been pushing for action against the terror infrastructure of which Saeed forms a crucial part.

During the talks, Islamabad in response to India’s complaint about Saeed calling for jihad against India at a public rally had said that Pakistani laws did not allow for action. An explanation that did not go down too well with New Delhi.