Denying access to Hafiz Saeed would make world more suspicious: Hussain Haqqani

The two-day visit of the UN Security Council's sanctions monitoring team will begin on Thursday.

With reports emerging that Islamabad may not allow a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) team any access to Hafiz Saeed, former Pakistani envoy to the US, Hussain Haqqani, said that denying access would make the world more suspicious.

A day after it was reported that a UN Security Council team would visit Pakistan, The Nation on Monday reported that the country won't allow the sanctions monitoring team any access to 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

"It would be in Pakistan's interest to give United Nations monitoring team complete access to Hafiz Saeed & all entities associated with him. The very fact that Pak wants to hide him from rest of the world basically makes world more suspicious," Haqqani told ANI.

The two-day visit of the UN Security Council's sanctions monitoring team will begin on Thursday. The UN monitoring team's visit is taking place amid increasing pressure on Pakistan from the US and India with respect to the inadequate implementation of the sanctions on Saeed and entities linked to him.

Saeed, the chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November. The JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. It has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.

When asked about him being booked for allegedly giving hate speeches and writing books and articles defaming the Pakistani military and the government, Haqqani said, "How weak must the army (Pakistan) be, if an individual's articles and books amount to waging war against it. As far as FIR is concerned, it won't make any difference. It is only aimed at propaganda war inside Pakistan."

OneIndia News