Krishna says India closely monitoring Saeed case

New Delhi, July 7 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has said that New Delhi is closely monitoring the case of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafeez Muhammad Saeed, the prime accused of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

"I think that it is the internal matter of Pakistan, especially when courts are involved. We do not comment on those developments. But, we are closely monitoring the events in Pakistan," Krishna said.

Pakistan lodged appeals on Monday against a court decision to release Saeed.

On June 2, a full bench of the Lahore High Court had ordered Saeed's release from house arrest on the basis of a habeas corpus petition filed by his lawyer.

The High Court said that it had not received substantial evidence to continue the detention of Saeed.

The court also ordered the release of another JuD leader Colonel (retired) Nazir Ahmad.

Saeed was put under house arrest on December 11 last year, day after the JuD, the political wing of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was declared a terrorist group by the United Nations (UN).

On the Indian national, Sarabjit Singh, presently facing gallons of death for alleged bomb blasts in Pakistan cities, Krishna urged Islamabad to consider the case on humanitarian ground.

"The Government of India has already gone on record to say that Pakistan authorities should consider it on humanitarian grounds. We look forward to that," Krishna said.

Singh, condemned to death in Pakistan for spying has appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari to spare his life, his lawyer said on Monday, after the Supreme Court dismissed his petition to review the sentence.

Singh, was sentenced to death in 1991 for spying and bombing that killed 14 people. His family said he was innocent and had crossed the border into Pakistan accidentally in 1990 while he was drunk.

Pakistani officials said Singh was arrested while trying to slip back into India after the bomb blasts.

The government suspended his death sentence in May last year after his family visited Pakistan and appealed for a pardon. But a three-member bench upheld the sentence last month, saying they had no reason to reconsider the original sentence.

Singh's lawyer, Awais Ahmad Sheikh, met him in his prison cell in Lahore and later said Singh had sought mercy from Zardari.

Singh also sent a message to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to press Zardari for his release, Sheikh said. (ANI)