Washington, OCt 04 : Pakistan cabinet minister Noor-Ul-Haq Qadri “should have been more sensitive” while sharing the dais with 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan’s foreign minister has said, acknowledging the mistake committed by his ministerial colleague this week.
“I will go home and certainly ask him why he did that. But what I am told it was an event to highlight the situation in Kashmir,” Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a Washington audience on Wednesday when asked about the cabinet minister for religious affairs sharing a dais with the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba’s chief at a meeting in Islamabad.
“It had nothing to do with Lashkar-e-Taiba. There were other political elements there. He happened to be one of them,” Qureshi said.
Difa-e-Pakistan Council is a coalition of over 40 Pakistani political and religious parties that advocate conservative policies.
Qureshi said Pakistan is serious in the fight against terrorism. “We cannot surrender to terrorism. We will have to take them on and we will have to clear areas. We have successfully done that…” he said, adding Pakistan’s efforts are not being recognised by the US.
