New Delhi:
India and Pakistan are slugging it out over Hafiz Saeed. Generating a new controversy, Pakistan now says Saeed never came up in Foreign Secretary-level talks between the two countries.
At a press conference in Multan on Sunday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters: "You will be surprised that they made no demand (for the arrest of Saeed). They did not even mention Hafiz Saeed in the entire talks." (
Read: India has not demanded Saeed's arrest)
His comments were referring to the recently concluded round of Foreign Secretary level talks between India and Pakistan in Delhi two weeks ago.
The comments prompted a quick, and an angry reaction from Delhi. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it was surprised with Qureshi's statement.
"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. His name also featured in another dossier handed over to the Pakistan Foreign Secretary during the talks on February 25, 2010. And that in fact Saeed's activities including his recent vitriolic and venomous statements aimed at fomenting further acts of terrorism against India was raised strongly during the Foreign Secretary-level talks," a statement from the Ministry said.
"The MEA is the right body to comment. But we have given them enough evidence in the dossiers to investigate Saeed," Home Secretary GK Pillai said.
In fact not only has the government demanded Pakistan act against Saeed, it also asked for access to Saeed once he is arrested during the last round of talks.