Chief of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency Mohsin Butt chose to remain silent when confronted with questions from the media on Tuesday about handing over to India Dawood Ibrahim and other fugitive terrorists suspected to be safely cocooned in his country.
Butt, who is in the national capital to attend the 90th General Assembly of Interpol, apparently avoided, till the last minute, entering the plenary hall at the Pragati Maidan, the event venue that was swarming with reporters looking for a statement from him on the whereabouts of the most-wanted terrorists.
The officer, who is heading a two-member Pakistan delegation, preferred to stay in the dining hall, where lunch was organised, and entered the venue just before the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was announced.
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Once Prime Minister Modi's address was over, he was surrounded by reporters who wanted to know about the location of the 1993 Mumbai blast mastermind Dawood Ibrahim, designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations, and asked when he and other terrorists wanted by India like Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar and 9/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed will be handed over.
Butt stayed mum and walked away even as media persons fired a volley of questions at the top Pakistani officer.
He was appointed as the director-general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which is also the National Central Bureau of Pakistan to coordinate with Interpol in July this year.
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Calling the global community to work faster to "eliminate safe havens" for terrorists, criminals and the corrupt, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said when the "forces of good cooperate, the forces of crime cannot operate".
Further, Modi warned about the harmful globalised threats that the world faces -- terrorism, corruption, drug trafficking, poaching and organised crime.
"The pace of change of these dangers is faster than earlier. When threats are global, the response cannot be just local! It is high time that the world comes together to defeat these threats," Modi said.
Who is Dawood Ibrahim?
Dawood Ibrahim is an Indian mafia, who is wanted under several charges of criminal acts including drug trafficking, extortion, targetted killing, terrorism and so on. He is suspected to be one of the accused of the Bombay bombings of 1993, for which he was designated a global terrorist by India and the United States in 2003, with a reward of US$25 million on his head.
He is said to live in Karachi, Pakistan although the Pakistan government denies the same.
(with PTI inputs)
