A delegation of Indian lawmakers has asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to press Pakistan to bring to book the 26/11 case accused, Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and ensure that Islamabad does not divert Washington aid for anti-India activities.
Led by Congress spokesmen Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the delegation, which met Ms. Clinton here, expressed concern over the proposed China-Pakistan nuclear deal.
The visiting MPs also raised these issues during meetings with Congressmen, policymakers and officials of the Obama Administration.
“We expressed our very strong concerns about dispensable assets like Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi in Pakistan against whom there is a very strong, credible, enormous dossier of evidence supplied to both Pakistan and the U.S.; about why the U.S. should use stronger pressure to ensure that such assets are at least brought to book under the law of the land and not just cosmetically dealt with by local courts in Pakistan, which acquit them,” Mr. Singhvi said.
China nuclear deal
The team raised concerns that China supplying nuclear plants to Pakistan might be in contravention of the guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
It urged the U.S. to ensure that Pakistan did not allow its soil to be used for anti-India activities.
“We also expressed our serious concerns about misusing of U.S. aid by Pakistan and diverting it for anti-India activities, and how much micro scrutiny can be done by the U.S. to ensure that the legitimate aid does not gets diverted for anti-India purposes,” said the Congress leader.
Mr. Singhvi is leading a group of all-party MPs to the fourth India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Programme organised annually by the Yale University and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
He said the response of American officials to India's concerns had been “understanding, sympathetic, and absorbent“.
Asked about American concerns, if any, Mr. Singhvi said the U.S. concerns were centred around a larger security architecture for the whole of South Asia.
“I think this is an important achievement that there is no hyphenation of India-Pakistan relations for the U.S. The hyphen, if at all, has shifted further westwards between Pakistan and Afghanistan. That is a positive sign.”
