Basit's comments on 'free-to-roam' Hafiz Saeed create fury in India
"Hafiz Saeed is a Pakistani national so he is free to roam around. He is a free citizen so there is no issue as far as Pakistan is concerned,” said Abdul Basit while addressing the media on Monday.
“Courts have already exonerated him. There is no case pending against him,” added the high commissioner.
Basit's remarks were met with sharp reaction from India, who have long accused Saeed of being the mastermind of the attacks on Mumbai in 2008 that left 166 people dead.
Indian external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said, "Our views on Hafiz Saeed are very clear. To us, he is the evil mastermind of the attacks on Mumbai and one of the accused in an Indian court for killings on streets of Mumbai."
“We have repeatedly asked Pakistan that he should be apprehended and taken through normal judicial process.”
The spokesperson added that the Mumbai attacks were planned in Pakistan, and hence evidence was in Pakistan.
A few weeks earlier, the high commissioner's meeting with Hurriyat leaders came under scrutiny, with the Indian government going as far as cancelling scheduled secretary-level talks between the neighbouring countries.
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"@Strategic Asset:Pakistan angel will not talk about the thousands of jihadis and army men pushed into Kashmir since 1947 who are buried in mass graves there because Pakistan will not accept their bodies." You don't have to forget this harsh reality or you are trying to camouflage it intentionally that first India deployed its troops in Kashmir in 1947 for the purpose of unlawful and illegal occupation then Pakistan deployed.Read the history of Kashmir's occupation by Indian troops completely with real and true facts and also listen the Pandit Jawahir La'al Nehru's speech at UNSC's meeting in which he said that Kashmiri people will decide themselves that either they want to affiliate with India or Pakistan or want their own separate independent state Indian angel.Did India from 1947 to now give plebiscite right to the Kashmiri people to decide their fate except elections' dramas in Occupied Kashmir?????
How come only Muslim leaders who oppose occupation of Muslim lands by foreign powers are considered 'international terrorists'? What about Israeli, Indian occupiers brutalizing, raping, torturing, and murdering innocent Palestinians, Kashmiri Muslims?
No concrete evidence has been brought to try any Kashmiri revolutionary in the Mumbai attacks. Afzal Guru was hung by the Indians without any evidence of wrongdoing. Ajmal Kasab was not a Pakistani, but an Indian Marathi Hindu. Hafiz Saeed is completely innocent.
Still waiting for justice for the rapes of 10,000 Kashmiri women and the murder of 100,000 Kashmiri men.
Indians speaking of justice is pure hypocrisy. I am a Kashmiri, I should know this fact more than anyone.
@Iqbal: you should not be ashamed of being a Muslim but you should be ashamed of yourself for being an advocate of Indian viewpoint..
@Aschraful Makhlooq, What about the brutalities of the original illegal occupiers, aka the people from deserts who stole our land and calling us occupiers? Does your history magically start at 1947?
@Aschraful Makhlooq: Pakistan angel will not talk about the thousands of jihadis and army men pushed into Kashmir since 1947 who are buried in mass graves there because Pakistan will not accept their bodies.
@MudassarRana: Could you please also provide the name of the minister that said it wss inside job? We know current PM of pakistan made a statement of Kasab being a pakistani national. Funny thing is you believe a kafir over a pious muslim.
I am sure H E Basit is going to get the same treatment from Indian establishment that Ms Nancy Powell got post Kobragade incident in New York. Let us wait and see.
@MudassarRana: You have nailed it my friend.....I wonder when these (my Indian friends) will get out of this delusion and their ''Bollywood'' utopia/mania.
Just like Osama was an innocent man free to roam in Pakistan.
@Aschraful Makhlooq: Pakistan has a long track record of duplicitous behavior. Just ask the Americans.
"@Indian:@Asfandyar Khan: Mode or Indian generals are not terrorists. while Mr. Hafiz is a wanted international terrorist" Methinks Indians are angels and only Pakistani people are miscreants,culprits and terrorists.How much you Indians are living in dreams....
now both side of the civil servants and diplomats start fighting now because they are the actual people who are running the day to day work of the federal governments. keep going good for democracy.
@goggi (Lahore): Curious that the the Pakistani government agreed that Kasab was a Pakistani, or did you somehow miss that news back then!
@goggi (Lahore): Kasab was trained and taught to speak Hindi. Don't tell such stupid jokes. The FBI and Indian intelligence agencies had traced and recorded the conversations between Ajmal and co with their "Masters" in Pakistan during the terror strike in Mumbai. It was proven that Mumbai terror attack was originated from Pakistan. Do you think that the whole world will believe your stupid theory of Hindi accent of Ajmal etc ? Grow up kid..
@MudassarRana: Which indian minister admitted that Mumbai terror was an inside job ?
@Asfandyar Khan: Mode or Indian generals are not terrorists. while Mr. Hafiz is a wanted international terrorist
@Ishan:
US is an standard value of truth for you not for us..................
Indian authorities failed to prove in black and white that the terrorist Kasab was/is a Punjabi.
We never heard him speaking the crude Punjabi of Faridkot!!!
In YouTube there are clips of his interrogations in Hindi language with a Gujarati accent.
A rational mind should not go by conjectures and condemn or convict anybody whosoever.
Bizarre - when an indian minister himself admitted that mumbai was an inside job!
If hafiz saeed is guilty of the 180 murders because he is the mastermind then there is enough evidence to suggest that modi was the mastermind of the 2000 deaths in gujrat. But obviously being keen on double standards we arent going to see him in court. indians so mindful of their image elected him prime minister - and if america's opinion was so trustworthy then modi wasnt allowed to enter america!
The reality is that many attacks were committed by right wing organisations and then blamed on pakistan - infact a police officer was killed in the mumbai attacks because he was going to expose the nexus. but a population fed on that even farting in india is the responsibility of ISI will never ask the correct questions.
You keep poisonous snakes like this and wonder why Pakistanis are being looking down, why nobody wants to invest in Pakistan.There are lots 'why's. Clean up your backyard, keep the religion as personal and try to uplift the lives of the common people.
Before anyone else, Modi should be hanged in public for the Gujrat riots.
I guess Osama was free to roam too
@Asfandyar Khan:
Why is modi roaming free? Why are murderous Indian generals roaming free?
Are they wanted by USA and is there a reward for their arrest? Why don't you accept that Pakistan has now virtually become a terrorist state. I have. I know you will not because you may have been educated at a madrassa where you were taught bigotry as reported in this link: http://dawn.com/2011/11/09/pakistan-schools-teach-hindu-hatred/#idc-cover I am ashamed to be a muslim because in the West we have the highest crime rate: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/dec/07/young-prisoners-muslim and on page 11 of this report: http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn04334.pdf Now take a deep breath and think: "Am I ashamed to be a muslim?"
He is a terrorist, even US says that. Pakistan shouldn't ruin its image further by protecting this man.
Another example of breaking news starved Indian media. Poor High Commissioner got trapped and ended up giving a news bite at a public function. What all followed was on expected lines.
“Courts have already exonerated him. There is no case pending against him,” Funny, the these same courts never exonerates anyone who is accused of blasphemy. Does Aisha Bibi and hundreds more ring a bell? In any case this person is also wanted by USA. Very soon he is soon going to be visited by a drone.