Pakistan not to hand over any terror suspect to India

Pakistan will not hand over to India any of the 20 terror suspects that New Delhi has demanded, official sources told The News here on Tuesday.

They said some of those named were not in the country while others had already been cleared but were under constant surveillance.

Reports in the Indian media said New Delhi had demanded Islamabad to hand over 20 suspected persons, including Dawood Ibrahim, India’s most-wanted man. India claims Dawood Ibrahim, the alleged mastermind of the 01993 Mumbai bombings, is living in Pakistan whereas the Pakistani authorities deny it.

Others named include Chief of Jamaat-ul-Dawah Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and the founder of Jaish-e-Muhammad Maulana Masood Azhar, who had been released by India following the Kandahar hijacking during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

“The organisations banned by the Musharraf regime in the wake of 9/11 incident have been under constant surveillance and all those freed have already been cleared by intelligence agencies after thorough investigations,” said an official.

“There is no precedent of handing over any alleged suspect to India and vice versa. So turning these 20 persons over to India is out of question because we have our own surveillance apparatus in place and we have confirmed that none of them was involved in any suspected activity while some of them are currently not even living in Pakistan,” he added.

The official said members of the proscribed outfits, who were involved in suspected activities, had already been apprehended when a crackdown against such elements was launched by the previous regime.

When approached for comments, Jamaat-ul-Dawah spokesman Yahya Mujahid categorically rejected the Indian claims and said the Pakistani authorities were already watching their activities and had there been any doubts, they would not have been allowed to go free.

“Everybody knows that the previous regime would not have let us live in freedom, had it suspected any of our activity. It is mere Indian propaganda so as to conceal the failure of its intelligence and law enforcement agencies,” he said.

“The Indian claims are aimed at hoodwinking the Indian people. However, it is up to the Pakistani government to decide as what to do and how to respond to the Indian demand in a befitting manner,” he said.