ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office confirmed on Friday India had sent a formal extradition request for Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who cofounded the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba group, after a senior official in New Delhi shared the information with journalists in a media briefing.
India suspects Saeed’s involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which led to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people, and wants him to stand trial under its laws.
Saeed refused to take responsibility for the attacks in the past in which a group of gunmen targeted hotels and other localities in the Indian city.
Pakistan put him under house arrest on various charges before convicting him for 31 years on terrorism financing in April 2022.
“Pakistan has received a request from the Indian authorities, seeking extradition of Hafiz Saeed in a so-called money laundering case,” the foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said.
“It is pertinent to note that no bilateral extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and India,” she added.
Only a day earlier, Baloch refused to respond to a query about reports of India’s request to extradite Saeed, calling such information “speculative.”
However, the spokesperson for the Indian external affairs ministry, Arindam Bagchi, shared the information with the reporters in a media briefing on Friday.
“We have conveyed a request along with relevant supporting documents to the government of Pakistan,” he said.
Pakistan confirms receiving India’s extradition request for Hafiz Saeed ‘in money laundering case’
https://arab.news/m9rxn
Pakistan confirms receiving India’s extradition request for Hafiz Saeed ‘in money laundering case’
- India suspects Saeed’s involvement in 2018 Mumbai attacks that led to killings of hundreds of people
- The foreign office in Islamabad says no bilateral extradition treaty exists between India and Pakistan
Death toll in Pakistan wedding suicide blast rises to six
- Attack targeted members of local peace committee in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan
- Peace committees are community-based groups that report militant activity to security forces
PESHAWAR: The death toll from a suicide bombing at a wedding ceremony in northwestern Pakistan rose to six, police said on Saturday, after funeral prayers were held for those killed in the attack a day earlier.
The bomber detonated explosives during a wedding gathering in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, injuring more than a dozen, some of them critically.
“The death toll has surged to six,” said Nawab Khan, Superintendent of Police for Saddar Dera Ismail Khan. “Police have completed the formalities and registered the case against unidentified attackers.”
“It was a suicide attack and the Counter Terrorism Department will further investigate the case,” he continued, adding that security had been stepped up across the district to prevent further incidents.
No militant group has claimed responsibility for the blast so far.
Khan cautioned against speculation, citing ongoing militancy in the area, and said the investigation was being treated with “utmost seriousness.”
The explosion targeted the home of a member of a local peace committee, which is part of community-based groups that cooperate with security forces and whose members have frequently been targeted by militants in the past.
Some media reports also cited a death toll of seven, quoting police authorities.
Emergency officials said several of the wounded were taken to hospital soon after the blast.
Militant attacks have intensified in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad accusing Afghan authorities of “facilitating” cross-border assaults, a charge Kabul denies.
