Pakistan confirmed it has received India's request for extradition of 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, but said that no bilateral extradition treaty exists between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, in a statement, said, "Pakistan has received a request from the Indian authorities, seeking extradition of Hafiz Saeed in a so-called money laundering case. It is pertinent to note that no bilateral extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and India.”
Though India does not have an extradition pact with Pakistan, extradition is, reportedly, possible even in the absence of such a pact.
Saeed, 71, was sentenced to 33 years in jail by a Pakistan court after being convicted in two cases of terror financing in April last year. However, he has been in jail since 2019 after being convicted in several terror finance cases.
Earlier, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had confirmed to the media that India has asked Pakistan to extradite the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder and UN-proscribed terrorist Saeed, who is wanted by Indian probe agencies in a number of terror cases.
Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) - the front organisation for LeT - was behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
He said the request for extraditing Saeed, along with certain documents, was handed over to Islamabad a few weeks ago by the Indian high commission in Pakistan. "The person in question is wanted in numerous cases in India. He is also a UN-proscribed terrorist. In this regard, we have conveyed a request, along with relevant supporting documents, to the government of Pakistan to extradite him to India to face trial in a particular case," he said.
India has also taken note of reports of Saeed's son Talha contesting elections in Pakistan, he said, and added that the "mainstreaming" of radical terror outfits in the neighbouring country is nothing new and that it has been part of its State policy for a long time.
Talha Saeed is considered the number two person in the LeT hierarchy.
Hafiz Saeed-backed Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) will contest the upcoming general elections in Pakistan. Talha Saeed will contest the polls from the National Assembly's constituency NA-127, Lahore.
