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.