The United States has said it wants to see Hafiz Saeed, the founder of LeT is brought to justice and this is the reason why it recently announced a reward of $10 million to anyone for information leading to his trial in a court of law.
“We have been very clear why this program, particularly our Rewards for Justice programme, was put in place. We want to see this individual brought to justice,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
“As you remember at the time, there was a lot of speculation of why we did this because everyone knows he’s in Pakistan. What we want to do is give the Pakistani authorities the judicial wherewithal to bring this guy to justice,” he said.
At the time we used the phrase, and continue to use, evidence that can withstand judicial scrutiny.
“Whether he is tried in a Pakistani court or in a U.S. court or wherever, we want to see him brought to justice,” Mr. Toner said.
Responding to questions, Mr. Toner denied news reports that the US-Pak relationship is now standstill.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say right now that everything is at a standstill with Pakistan. We have had a series of high-level meetings over the past month to two months that we believe is laying the groundwork for renewed cooperation,” he noted.
“We have had this parliamentary review completed. We had Ambassador Grossman over there talking to Pakistani officials.
And our counterterrorism cooperation has continued throughout this period,” Mr. Toner said.
We don’t see eye-to-eye with Pakistan on every issue; that’s for sure. But I think we have approached the outcome of this parliamentary review with an open mind. I think we are willing to discuss all the issues that were raised by it, but that dialogue’s really just begun,” he said.
Great expectations...!Trial of a terrorist like Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan is not going to happen in his lifetime. There are only 2 options, either India does what US did to Osama or keep quiet and patiently wait for another attack. Expecting US to pressurize Pakistan to capture and try Hafiz is stupidity. Simply because Pak has been eaiting US's money and still supported Osama, so would they hold such a public figure(so much for $10million) accountable for the actions which were done against India.
I totally support the idea behind the announcement of a reward of $10 million on Saeed for information leading to his trial in a court of law by US. We cannot depend on a country even if it is the most powerful country to address our problem, as even they will have their problems big or small. We cannot expect US to act the same way it did in Osamas case. We need to build pressure in Pakistan to get a hold of Saeed and put him on a trial for his involvement and being the mastermind in the 9/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai.
Bounty or no bounty Pakistan has been quite clear about what it wants to do with this man. They have given him free rein to carry on with his anti-India, anti-Western agenda and his day job of preaching hatred in large gathering to mobilize people for his stated mission. Indian authority has failed to prod Pakistan to proceed against Saeed but it has been made clear to us by them that his activities are perfectly legal as per Pakistan's law. It seems they have a different standard of rule of law that does not find fault with someone's action of inciting violence against a particular community or nation. The bounty, if announced for gathering information for facilitating legal action against Saeed as is being stated by the US is not going to work unless someday ISI face serious financial crunch to get on with sponsoring terror and promoting such groups that they may decide to hand over this man in exchange for $10 million, but not before that.
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