KOCHI: Shashi Tharoor MP on Friday said that Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the alleged mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was not vigorously prosecuted in Pakistan.
“I think he has not been properly prosecuted and this shows the laxity of
judiciary in Pakistan. They had taken the line of resistance as they are afraid of leaving him alone as he had many followers in that country,” he told reporters here.
Tharoor said the kind of inflammatory statement and incitement to violence of which Saeed is guilty should be actionable. He also noted that the evidence which India had given on 26/11 was itself enough for his prosecution.
If Saeed had made such an inflammatory speech anywhere else, he would spend years in jail, he added.
He said that no one could make such an inflammatory speech in India. He would be prosecuted, jailed and punished.
When asked about the Salman Rushdie episode, Tharoor said it was a great shame that the acclaimed novelist could not attend the Jaipur Literary Festival.
“But the government
could not be blamed for it as there was no ban imposed on him,” he said. On Bangladeshi writer Tasleema Nasreen’s book not being allowed to be released by fundamentalists at the Kolkata book fair, he said it was also disgraceful and a shame.
When asked about the Supreme Court verdict on 2G, Tharoor said he had not gone into the details.
With regard to Kerala team for this year’s IPL, he said the owners had already talked to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Moreover, the auction was being held on Saturday, he said.