New Delhi, December 17
Contrary to Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s “repeated” claims, the 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed was never arrested in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks, the government said today. The revelation came a day after the conclusion of Malik’s controversial three-day visit to India.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde specifically told both Houses of Parliament that copies of FIRs and judgments pertaining to previous arrests of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief, which were made available to India, showed that he was never arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

“Therefore, I can only say that Rehman Malik appears to have been misinformed in the matter,” Shinde told Parliament. The Opposition BJP aggressively tried to corner the government over Malik’s controversial statements, specifically the one where he had equated the Babri Masjid demolition with the Mumbai terror attacks.

While Shinde was silent on the BJP’s offensive on India’s “conspicuous silence” on the Pakistan minister’s statements, he presented a detailed response on how Malik “repeatedly” told India that they “had arrested Saeed thrice and that on each occasion he was let off by the courts for lack of evidence”.

“We had been given to understand by the Interior Minister of Pakistan that Hafiz Saeed had been arrested on charges of being a part of the conspiracy for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks,” the Home Minister added.

Shinde said after India pursued the matter, Pakistan gave them the papers pertaining to JuD chief’s arrests in 2002 and 2009. However, “from the papers given to us, it is clear that the detentions of Hafiz Saeed in the aforesaid cases were for other reasons and not for his role as a conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks”.

Shinde said Pakistan had been told that it was of “paramount importance” to bring guilty of Mumbai terror strikes to justice to ensure that peace process proceeded towards an atmosphere free of terrorism and violence. “On a larger plane, it was stated that terrorism is affecting all aspects of relationship and that we must deal with this menace effectively,” he added.

Earlier in the Lok Sabha, stressing that Malik’s statements had “hurt the prestige of the country” senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha demanded that no talks should be held with Pakistan till the culprits of Mumbai terror attacks and the prime conspirator Saeed were handed over to India by Islamabad.

His counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Ravishankar Prasad charged Shinde with being “conspicuously silent” on many contentious issues raised by Malik during his visit, including the one on the Babri Masjid demolition.