Why does India think Pakistan will prosecute and convict Hafeez Saeed? What if Pakistan were to turn around and make a similar demand of India—what would the reaction be? After all, Jamaat ud Dawa is very much like the RSS. It is a volunteer social work organisation with a vicious, violent ideology. So what if Pakistan asked for the arrest and conviction of Sudarshan?

MHA will say Hafeez is a terrorist and we have proof that he has sponsored the 26/11 attack. I doubt if that is enough to convict someone in a court of law which follows the British traditions. In British courts, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to get conviction for terrorists. This is because those who commit the suicide bombing are dead anyway. It is not easy, however, to catch the people who sent the suicide bombers on their mission. British law was amended in 2005 to make ‘conspiracy to commit an act of terror’ a crime. But here there is a problem that with the right of free speech enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which the UK as well as India are signatories, you have to prove that the defendant did more than just use speech acts to conspire with others to commit an act of terror.

In the years since 9/11 and even more particularly, the UK’s own 7/7 London underground bombings, counter-terrorism forces have often made arrests. In the well-publicised case in 2006 where there was an alleged conspiracy to blow up many aircraft in flight by some liquid jelly which the bombers were to carry in their hand luggage (whence the tough security regulations at airports about carrying liquids onboard), the UK police arrested more than a dozen but could not get any conviction.

... contd.