'Pak needs legally tenable evidence to nail Saeed'

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday said there was a need for 'legally tenable evidence' to nail Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed for the Mumbai terror strikes, contradicting India's stand that it had provided enough evidence for the attack mastermind's prosecution.

"To pin someone down, not only do you require evidence, you require legally tenable evidence," he said when asked about India's dossiers on Saeed's role in the 26/11 carnage. He said the Supreme Court of Pakistan is "independent and we have to respect the judgment of the judiciary".

Last week, Pakistan's Supreme Court had dismissed appeals by the government against Saeed's release from house arrest for want of evidence, in a setback to India's efforts to nail him for his involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

Qureshi assured that Pakistan would take every effort to dismantle terror networks and it would not allow its soil to be used against anyone.

"We are victims (of terrorism) as anybody else. What you saw in Lahore was a very tragic incident. We are facing these terrorists and we are fighting them and we will take this fight to its logical conclusion and we will defeat them," he told a TV channel.

Qureshi stressed the need to bridge the 'trust deficit' between the neighbouring countries and expressed hope that he will hold discussions with his Indian counterpart soon.

"Yes, there is a trust deficit, we have to bridge it. We have to find a way of bridging this trust deficit. We also have to find a way of building confidence and that is exactly I intend to do in the days to come," he said.

"The two prime ministers have given the responsibility to the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan to bridge the trust deficit," he said.