Pak lets Saeed rail again; upset India protests

India,which has registered its deep and continuing concern at the highest levels in Pakistan over the tirades of Hafiz Saeed....

India,which has registered its deep and continuing concern at the highest levels in Pakistan over the tirades of Hafiz Saeed,was frustrated again last week as the Lashkar-e-Toiba founder railed against alleged Indian-Israeli cooperation to target the liberation struggle in Kashmir.

New Delhi is learnt to have taken up forcefully with Pakistan Saeeds speech,in which he harped on the nexus between India,Israel and the US,and said that Mossad instructors are training Indian troops to crush the liberation movement (in Kashmir).

Pictures from the June 13 public rally in Lahore,organised to protest Israeli action in Gaza,show Indian,Israeli and US flags being spread out on the road for protesters to walk over and trample.

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The rally was reportedly held with the permission of the authorities,and in the presence of the Pakistani police. It was attended by,besides Saeed,former ISI chief Hamid Gul,Jamaat-e-Islamis Syed Munawar Hassan,Senator Sajid Mir of the Jamiat Ahl-i-Hadith,and Hafiz Hussain Ahmed of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam.

Saeeds tirade,only a couple of weeks before Home Minister P Chidambarams scheduled visit to Islamabad for the SAARC home ministers meeting,has annoyed India.

Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao took up the matter with Pakistan High Commissioner Shahid Malik earlier this week when he came to formally extend the invitation for foreign secretary-level talks next week. (Rao will visit Islamabad to hold discussions with Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir on June 24,it was officially announced today.) Other diplomatic channels were also employed to convey Indias displeasure to Pakistan,sources said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had specifically raised the Saeed issue with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani during their one-on-one conversation in Thimphu on April 29. The meeting had resulted in the understanding to hold political and official-levels talks aimed at reducing the trust deficit between the two sides.

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The foreign secretary had said,The Prime Minister did mention our very deep and continuing concerns about Hafiz Saeed,the fact that he has been allowed to go free and engage in language and in communications that are certainly not conducive to building an atmosphere of peace and stability.

The Pakistanis,she said,had mentioned some difficulties as far as their judicial system is concerned about tackling such issues,after which India had hoped there could be a strengthening of the relevant laws. New Delhi had expected,sources said,that Islamabad would do its best to not allow Saeed to vitiate the atmosphere before two important ministerial meetings. (Chidambarams visit to Pakistan will be followed by a meeting between External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad on July 15.)

Saeed,whose fewer public appearances in the past few months had begun to generate some confidence in New Delhi that Islamabad was indeed responding to requests,reportedly said at Sundays rally that Israeli aggression is not confined to Gaza alone,and that Mossad had set up offices and bases in Kashmir.

He warned the Pakistan government that the country was under siege,and attempts were on in connivance with Israel to build dams that would turn Pakistan into a barren land.