Action against Saeed first step in bringing him to justice: MEA

21/02/2017

NEW DELHI, Feb 20: India today said the action against Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his colleagues was a first logical step in getting the region rid of the twin menaces of terrorism and violent extremism.
“Hafiz Saeed is an international terrorist, the mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attack and responsible for unleashing a wave of terrorism against Pakistan’s neighbours through LeT/ JuD and their affiliates,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Vikas Swarup said.
“Effective action mandated internationally against him and his terrorist organisations and colleagues is a logical first step in bringing them to justice, and in ridding our region of the twin menaces of terrorism and violent extremism,” he said.
Swarup was responding to a question on the listing of Saeed by Pakistan under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Saeed, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief, is currently under house arrest in Pakistan.
The Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 empowers the Pakistan government to mark a person as “proscribed” and to place that person on the fourth schedule on an ex-parte basis.
Any violation of provision of the fourth schedule may result in imprisonment of up to three years and fine or both.
Meanwhile, India and Pakistan today extended an agreement on reducing the risk of accidents relating to nuclear weapons for next five years.
The validity of the exiting agreement was expiring today. The 2007 agreement was signed in the presence of the then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri in New Delhi to rule out the nuclear accidents related risk.
“In accordance with Article 8 of the Agreement between the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on Reducing the Risk of Accidents Relating to Nuclear Weapons, both countries have agreed to extend the Agreement for a further period of five years,” a press statement issued by the MEA said here.
However, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will arrive here tomorrow for crucial talks with top Chinese officials amid differences over issues like India’s NSG bid and China’s blocking of efforts to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN.
Jaishankar, who served as the Indian envoy to China from 2009 to 2013, the longest tenure by an Indian diplomat in Beijing, will begin his visit tomorrow by meeting State Councillor Yang Jiechi, Beijing’s Special Representative for India-China border talks, official sources said.
In the Chinese official hierarchy, the State Councillor of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) is regarded as the top diplomat functioning directly under the country’s leadership.
Besides attending an upgraded strategic dialogue with China’s Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui on February 22, Jaishankar is also expected to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Underlining the significance of the strategic dialogue, which was upgraded during Wang’s visit to New Delhi last year, Chinese side has deputed Zhang, who is also the head of the influential CPC committee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

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