WikiLeaks: New Delhi gutted wheat aid plan for Swat IDPs

Rethink came about after the release of the Jamaatud Dawa leader.

KARACHI:

India was planning to offer wheat to residents of Swat valley who were displaced by the military operation in 2009, but (felt) it was ‘difficult to proceed with the offer’ after Hafiz Saeed was released, according to a US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks.

On June 2, 2009, Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) leader Hafiz Saeed was ordered to be released from house arrest by the Lahore High Court (LHC), which ruled that his detention was illegal. In a meeting with the US Charge d’affaires Peter Burleigh the same day, then Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon expressed “dismay” at Saeed walking free.

Saeed was detained under the Maintenance of Public Order Law on December 11, 2008. After the LHC’s orders, Saeed was placed under house arrest again on September 21, 2009. On May 28, 2010, the Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed appeals filed by the government against Saeed’s release.

The cable states, “Menon had received the go-ahead to offer Pakistan donated wheat to feed displaced persons who had fled fighting in the Swat Valley. However, Menon noted, the release of Saeed had made it much more difficult to proceed with the offer.”

As far as the trial of the 26/11 attack suspects was concerned, the cable notes that Indian officials believed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was trying to “do the right thing but predict they will be stopped by other elements in the Pakistani government if they get close to achieving successful prosecutions.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2011.