Pakistan's action on Hafiz Saeed a 'mere eye wash': Manish Tewari

Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari has termed 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed's detention as "mere eye wash' and asked Pakistan to hand over the terrorist to India.

"It (Pakistan's action) is a mere eye wash. If Pakistanis are really serious, they need to hand Hafiz Saeed to India," Tewari told a group of reporters at the Atlantic Council on Wednesday.

Responding to a question, he said there are enough strong evidence against Saeed both in public domain and those provided by India to Pakistan through official channels.

"It is essentially an eye wash," he said citing similar experiences of the previous UPA government with other terrorists based in Pakistan who were temporarily detained, but were released later on. Tewari said that the US needs to pressurise Pakistan in order to solve the problem of terrorism.

"Either the US comes down heavily on Pakistan for not taking action against terrorist groups or being selective in its approach, or the democratic dispensation in Pakistan reigning in ISI and its elements." he said.

"The third way is that India starts playing the Pakistani game (proxy war). But for any democratic country like India, the moral question is whether responsible and mature democracies should use non-state actors each to meet its national security objectives," he added.

According to him, the successive Indian governments have given a thought about it but concluded that "responsible government should not use non-state actors to serve its national goals".

On US President Donald Trump's comments that America would be willing to help India and Pakistan resolve its disputes, he said "It is a no go area".

The Congress leader also termed this as a "red line" which no Indian government will ever contemplate.