Author: PTI
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 1, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/239204/Pak-will-have-to-fight-war-if-India-doesnt-talk-Saeed.html
Notwithstanding the recent Indo-Pak Foreign
Secretary-level meeting for which India took initiative, JuD chief Hafiz Mohd
Saeed has said Pakistan will have to "fight a war at all costs"
if New Delhi is not prepared to hold talks.
"India wants war... If India is not prepared
to hold talks, Pakistan will have to fight a war at all costs," Saeed
said in an interview to a news channel.
Asked about India's accusations about his
involvement in planning and carrying out the Mumbai attacks, Saeed replied:
"Let India prove it in any court, I will be ready to accept everything."
To another question on whether people should
go to Kashmir for 'jehad' against India, he said there was "no doubt"
in his mind that this should be done.
He also said he had no doubt that the Pakistan
Government is "cowardly."
Saeed's comments came days after the Foreign
Secretaries of India and Pakistan held talks in New Delhi on February 25,
the first official parleys between the two sides since the Mumbai attacks.
Though there was no breakthrough in the talks,
the world community welcomed the development in the hope that it would lead
to normalisation of ties between the two countries.
The JuD chief's face was not shown during
the interview and he was filmed over his shoulder from the back. He said he
did not wish to be filmed as it was not allowed by 'Shariah' or Islamic law.
Saeed, also the founder of the banned Lashker-e-Taiba,
was placed under house arrest in Lahore in December 2008 after the JuD was
declared a terrorist group by the UN Security Council in the wake of the Mumbai
terror attacks.
He was freed after about six months on the
orders of the Lahore High Court.
The Pakistan government challenged his release
in the Supreme Court, but no hearing has been held in the matter for several
months after the case was adjourned for various reasons.
Several members of the LeT -- including its
operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a former aide of Saeed -- are currently
being tried by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi for their alleged role
in planning and facilitating the Mumbai attacks.
This case too has been affected by controversy
and delays.
