Kochi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday said Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was not 'sufficiently and vigorously prosecuted' as both Pakistani Government and Judiciary had taken the line of 'least resistance'.
"I think he has not been sufficiently and vigorously prosecuted and the reason for that is that both government of Pakistan and the judiciary have taken the line of least resistance as it will be safer for them to leave him alone because he has followers in that country," Tharoor, a former Minister of State for External Affairs said.
Tharoor was responding to questions on Saeed appearing to lose his cool on a TV talk show in Islamabad when Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyar questioned his contention that Indians did not accept Pakistan and said he should be arrested and brought before a terrorism court.
Speaking at the Ernakulam Press club, the former UN diplomat said the kind of inflammatory statement and incitement to violence of which Saeed is guilty should be 'actionable'. The evidence that India has given of 26/11 which itself should be enough for his prosecution, Tharoor said.
"Saeed's argument that he has not been convicted yet in Pakistan that may well be true.But if he were to make the same inflammatory speeches anywhere else, he would be spending a lot of time in jail," Tharoor, an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said.
Tharoor said personally he was 'very concerned' about the 'extremely lax standard' that seems to have been applied by the judiciary in the case of Saeed and in some other cases.
"I feel the kind of inflammatory speeches that Saeed has made, the kind of incitement to violence against India and Indians, particularly Hindus that he has expressed, that in most jurisdiction, would be a criminal offence. You cannot stand up and make a speech like that in India today. In India, you would be prosecuted, likely to be jailed and punished", Tharoor said.
Comments
0 comment