The Government of India has officially requested Pakistan to extradite 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed to India to stand trial in various cases registered by the National Investigation Agencies (NIA), top government sources told News18 on Thursday.
Sources told News18 that the document names Saeed as the accused in multiple NIA cases, including terror attacks and funding of terror groups in Kashmir. “He is also indulging in anti-national and subversive activities in the Kashmir valley,” an official told News18.
“This is a Letter of Rotatory which Pakistan agencies have not replied to. We are awaiting a reply. We will follow up again,” another official said.
Sources added that before any possibility of talks between India and Pakistan, the latter must comply with the extradition request.
A new political front of Hafiz Saeed has fielded candidates for most of the national and provincial Assembly constituencies across Pakistan for the February 8 general elections.
Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, has been in jail since 2019 after being convicted for several years in multiple terror finance cases along with some other leaders of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
Saeed, a UN-designated terrorist on whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty, was arrested on July 2019 in the terror financing cases. Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
In 2017, Saeed was put under house arrest by Pakistani authorities and subsequently released after being cleared of charges against him, drawing strong criticism from Washington and New Delhi.
Back in 2022, Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock had said that the international police body “cannot instruct” member countries to take action against ‘wanted terrorists’ — to arrest or extradite — as it is “exclusively within the discretion” of national authorities.
Comments
0 comment