If US Can Extradite Tahawwur Rana, Why Can't Pakistan Do The Same: Indian Envoy JP Singh

India's Ambassador to Israel JP Singh in an interview with Israeli TV channel i24 on Monday said that if the United States can handover Tahawwur Hussain Rana, one of the masterminds of 26/11 Mumbai attack, why can Pakistan not handover terrorists Hafiz Saeed, Sajid Mir and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

He further stressed that Operation Sindoor is "paused" and "not over," PTI reported.

"The terrorists killed people based on their religion. They asked people their religion before killing them and 26 innocent lives were lost," Singh said citing the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

He said that there is a long list of terror attacks in India that originated from Pakistan, "root cause are these two groups - Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba," PTI quoted Singh.

He said that Lakhvi, who was the main planner of the Mumbai attack, is roaming freely. Hafiz Saeed, the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, planner and executioner of the Mumbai attack is roaming freely. "So we can't believe them,” Singh said, hinting at Pakistan.

He added that the ceasefire is in place, however, "we have set a new normal and the new normal is that we will follow an offensive strategy. Wherever terrorists are, we have to kill those terrorists and we have to destroy their infrastructure."

India's attack on Nur Khan base on May 10 was a game changer, which created panic in Pakistan, following which Pakistan's DGMO reached out to the Indian counterpart seeking a ceasefire, he stated.

On the subject of the the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), he said that "IWT was signed in 1960 and the preamble of the treaty includes two key words - goodwill and friendship," saying that these two words that guide the treaty were not honoured by Pakistan.

"There was a lot of frustration among people that this cannot go on like this. Our Prime Minister said that blood and water cannot flow together and that is the reason that we decided to put this IWT in abeyance", he added.

"While IWT is in abeyance, another IWT is operational - Operation Sindoor is India’s War Against Terrorism", he said.

Singh said that Pakistan just needs to hand over "terrorists" to India, "they need to do a very simple thing - when the preamble includes goodwill and friendship," following US' suit.

"When the US can hand over these culprits, why can't Pakistan hand over? They have to simply hand over Hafeez Saeed, Lakhvi, Sajid Mir and things will be over", he emphasised.

He dismissed Pakistan's offer to investigate the Pahalgam terror attack as a deflection strategy.

“What has happened to the Mumbai attack? What has happened to the Pathankot air base attack? What has happened to the Pulwama attack,” he questioned.

“We have given them dossiers after dossiers - we have given them technical inputs. America has shared with them evidence. Everything is there but what have they done”, he asked.

Lasty, calling terrorism a global menace, the Indian envoy called for greater cooperation among the countries faced with the challenge, as per PTI.