India wants Pak to charge Saeed under its domestic laws

On Tuesday Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries will sit down for talks in Egypt but there's a shadow hanging over the talks even before they start.

As confusion grows over whether an appeal against Hafiz Saeed's release from house arrest is being withdrawn from the Pakistan Supreme Court for lack of evidence.

Just watching the lead terrorist Hafiz Saeed walk free in Lahore and the government of Pakistan apparently unable to give the courts enough evidence has made the Indian team wonder if Pakistan is serious about fighting anti-Indian terrorism.

India has made it clear to Pakistan that it has to act against Hafiz Saeed, the man India holds responsible for the 26/11 attack in Mumbai.

Sources told NDTV that India has made it clear Pakistan has to act against Saeed if it wants to prove itself to be a normal, decent, civilised society and that arresting Saeed is key part of any visible Pakistan action against terrorism.

But while India may want Pakistan to take legal action against Saeed, Islamabad may be dithering.

It's still not clear on Thursday whether it will challenge the court's decision to release Saeed from house arrest or not. India wants Pakistan to charge Saeed under its domestic laws.

For now the Pakistan's apex court has asked the government to furnish concrete evidence and adjourned proceedings till the July 16 - ironically the date of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart in Egypt.

Earlier, Punjab government had filed an appeal against Lahore High Court's order releasing Saeed.

Both the federal government and the Punjab government had filed petitions challenging the end of Hafiz Saeed's house arrest orders.

Though talks are set to resume in some form, casting a shadow is the question of whether Pakistan will act against Lashkar chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed.