Bilawal says ready to extradite Hafiz Saeed to India

Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asserted that his country had no objection to extraditing terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar to India as a “confidence-building measure”. However, Bilawal’s remark did not go down well with Hafiz Saeed’s son, Talha Saeed, who claimed that his comments brought disgrace to Pakistan globally. In an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera on Friday, Bilawal said Pakistan was ready to extradite “individuals of concern” to India provided New Delhi showed what he called “willingness” to cooperate in the process. He made the remarks while responding to a question about extraditing Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as possible concessions and good-faith gestures to India. 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, the chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, said. Both LeT and JeM have been banned by Pakistan, according to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta). While Hafiz Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, is currently serving a 33-year sentence for terror financing, Masood Azhar, a UN-designated global terrorist, has been proscribed by Nacta. Masood Azhar, one of India’s most-wanted terrorists, has been linked to several major attacks in India, including the 2001 Parliament attack, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2016 Pathankot airbase assault, and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing. He was released from Indian custody in 1999 as part of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 Kandahar hijacking hostage swap. However, despite Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar being proscribed, such terrorists continue to roam freely within Pakistan and operate their outfits with impunity, and with the backing of the Pakistani military establishment. On that note, Bilawal said that the cases prosecuted against these “individuals” were those related to Pakistan, such as terrorist financing. He asserted that prosecuting Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar for cross-border terrorism was difficult due to what he claimed was “noncompliance” from India.