Bilawal Bhutto said Pakistan would be willing to arrest any “individual of concern” if India is willing to participate in the process and present evidence of the same.
Former Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said his country had no objection to extraditing “individuals of concern” to India as a confidence-building measure, as long as India shows willingness to cooperate with its neighbour.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Friday, Bilawal responded 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.
“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,” he said, while accusing India of not complying with Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism.
‘If India Cooperates…’
“India is refusing to comply with certain basic elements that require that conviction to take place. 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,” said Bilawal. “If India is willing to be cooperative in that process, I am sure there will be no hurdle in extraditing any individual of concern.”
Masood Azhar, who has been linked to a string of terror attacks in India- including the 2001 Parliament attack, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2016 Pathankot airbase assault and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing- was designated a UN global terrorist in 2019. Meanwhile, Saeed – the mastermind of the 26/11 attack – is currently serving a 33-year sentence for terror financing.
Bilawal also stressed that Pakistan had no knowledge of the location of Azhar and said he would be arrested if New Delhi provides credible evidence that he is on Pakistani soil. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman also suggested that Azhar may be in Afghanistan.
‘New Abnormal’
Furthermore, Bilawal expressed concern about India’s renewed policy to pursue terrorists, saying it does not serve the interests of either country and termed it a “new abnormal”.
India said any further discussions with Pakistan would only be on terrorism and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), after ties deteriorated sharply following a terror attack by Lashkar-linked terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.
