Pakistan ready to hand over Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar to India: Bilawal Bhutto

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said Pakistan is open to extraditing terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar if India cooperates. He stressed the need for evidence and witness support from India and noted Azhar may be hiding in Afghanistan

Islamabad: Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his country had no objection to extraditing “individuals of concern” to India as a confidence-building measure, as long as New Delhi showed willingness to cooperate in the process.

Bilawal, the chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, made the comments in an interview with Al Jazeera on Friday while responding to a question about extraditing Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as possible concessions and good-faith gestures to India, Dawn newspaper reported.

---

“As part of a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan, where terrorism is one of the issues that we discuss, I am sure Pakistan would not be opposed to any of these things,” Bilawal said.

Both LeT and JeM have been banned by Pakistan, according to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), while Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, is currently serving a 33-year sentence for terror financing, and Azhar, a UN-designated global terrorist, has been proscribed by Nacta.

Bilawal said that cases prosecuted against these “individuals” were those related to Pakistan, such as terrorist financing. However, he noted that prosecuting them for cross-border terrorism was difficult due to what he claimed was “noncompliance” from Delhi.

“India is refusing to comply with certain basic elements that require that conviction to take place,” he said. “It’s important … to present evidence within these courts, for people to come over from India to testify, to put up with whatever the counter-accusations will be.” “If India is willing to be cooperative in that process, I am sure there will be no hurdle in extraditing any individual of concern,” he added.

Bilawal also expressed concern about India’s vow to pursue terrorists, calling it a “new abnormal”. “This does not serve the interests of Pakistan, and it does not serve the interests of India,” he added.

Pressed on the whereabouts of Saeed and Azhar, Bilawal stated that the former was incarcerated, while Islamabad believes the latter is in Afghanistan. “It is factually not correct that Hafiz Saeed is a free man; he is in the custody of the Pakistani state,” he maintained, stating that Islamabad has been unable to arrest Azhar. “It is our belief that he is in Afghanistan,” Bilawal stated. “If and when the Indian government shares information that he is on Pakistani soil, we will be more than happy to arrest him.”