Author: NDTV Correspondent
Publication: NDTV.com
Date: May 03, 2011
URL: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/us-gets-osama-what-about-indias-most-wanted-102940
The US has got its most-wanted terrorist:
Osama bin Laden has been killed deep inside Pakistan. But India's most wanted,
Hafiz Saeed, still roams free in that very country.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:
"This is America. We rise to the challenge, we persevere and we get the
job done." The first question on many Indian minds - Why can't India
get its most wanted?
India has evidence that Hafiz Saeed is the
mastermind behind India's 9/11 - the Mumbai attacks in November 2008. And
minutes after US President Barack Obama confirmed Osama's death, Union Home
Minister P Chidambaram used the big news to put more pressure on Pakistan.
The Home Minister said, "Osama's killing
'deep inside Pakistan' underlines that terrorists find sanctuary in Pakistan...we
believe perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks continue to be sheltered in Pakistan."
Later on Monday night the Home Minister said
while talking to NDTV that if Osama could be hunted down, why not the main
perpetrators of 26/11?
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was less direct,
but equally emphatic when he said, "This is a decisive blow to Al Qaeda
and other terrorist groups. The international community and Pakistan, in particular,
must work comprehensively to end the activities of all such groups who threaten
civilized behaviour and kill innocent men, women and children."
The confirmation that Osama was hiding in Pakistan, perhaps for as long as
five years, may put Pakistan on the back foot, but Indian security experts
say this does not mean that the Pakistani establishment will act against Hafiz
Saeed or cooperate completely with India now.
"I don't see this incident changing the
manner in which Pakistan handles the 26/11 case...they are likely to use the
courts and other issues to continue in the manner that they are," said
Rana Banerjee, Special Secretary, R&AW.
It is suspected that Pakistan's Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) was aware of Osama's hideout. But Banerjee is sceptical
whether the fact that Osama was tracked down and killed in a garrison town
will force the powerful spy agency to change its attitude. "It is also
difficult to say whether the Pak-sponsored terror against India will change...Pakistan
is more likely to see this as a one-off incident," the retired R&AW
man said.
Meanwhile, Hafiz Saeed walks a free man and
even holds rallies in Pakistan.
