Mumbai suspect arrest plea snubbed
Pakistan has refused to arrest a key suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks, claiming there is insufficient evidence of his involvement in the massacre.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the Indian government should provide substantial proof against Hafiz Mohammed Saeed before they arrest him.
Saeed, the leader of banned organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), was freed from detention last month on orders of a Pakistani high court.
"We do not have any proof against Hafiz Saeed. We have demanded, and we are demanding from India that if you have proof, give (it to) us, but do not do propaganda," Mr Malik said.
"We cannot arrest our citizen just on hearsay. If New Delhi wants some credible action, it needs to provide substantiated evidence," he added.
Saeed had been placed under house arrest in December last year following a United Nations Security Council declaration that the JuD was a front for terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
India has accused Mr Saeed and his group of being virtually interchangeable with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and considers the thousands of JuD offices in Pakistan an "immediate concern with regard to their efforts to mobilise and orchestrate terrorist activities".
The lone surviving gunman from the Mumbai attacks Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, who reportedly belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, pleaded guilty to his role in the strikes in a surprise confession last week.
Pakistan, for the first time, acknowledged him as a citizen when it recently handed over a dossier on the attacks to India.