Amid the ongoing row over the extradition of the UN-proscribed terrorist and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, Pakistan on Friday confirmed receiving India's request to hand over the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind. Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the request for extraditing Pakistan-based Saeed, along with certain documents, was sent to Islamabad recently.
“We have conveyed a request along with relevant supporting documents to the government of Pakistan,” Bagchi told reporters in New Delhi.
Request made in the context of ' so-called money laundering
According to a report by Dawn.com, Pakistan's Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan received a request from the Indian authorities seeking Saeed’s extradition in a “so-called money laundering case” while adding “it is pertinent to note that no bilateral extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and India.”
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New Delhi does not have an extradition pact with Islamabad. However, people familiar with the matter said extradition is possible even in the absence of such a framework pact.
About Hafeez Saeed
Saeed, a hardline cleric, was arrested in July 2019 by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) following 23 first information reports registered against him and his close associates.
He was given a combined sentence of 33 years imprisonment in April 2022 by an anti-terrorism court in two cases of terror financing.
Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
