By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and former foreign minister, said on Friday that Pakistan would not object to extraditing individuals of concern to India, such as Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar, as a confidence-building measure, provided New Delhi cooperates in the legal process.
Relations between Pakistan and India, long marked by distrust, have grown increasingly tense following an April attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which India attributed to Pakistan without providing evidence. The accusation sparked a four-day military confrontation in May, halted only after US intervention.
Bhutto Zardari, a prominent advocate for dialogue between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, used an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera to outline Pakistan’s stance on addressing terrorism-related tensions.
“As part of a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan, where terrorism is one of the issues that we discuss, I am sure Pakistan would not be opposed to any of these things,” Bhutto Zardari said, responding to questions about extraditing Saeed, head of the banned Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT), and Azhar, leader of the banned Jaish-i-Muhammad (JeM), as potential gestures to India.
Both LeT and JeM are outlawed in Pakistan, according to the National Counter Terrorism Authority. Saeed is currently serving a 33-year sentence for terror financing, while Azhar has been proscribed by the authorities.
Bhutto Zardari emphasised that while these individuals face prosecution for crimes within Pakistan, such as terrorist financing, holding them accountable for cross-border terrorism remains elusive due to India’s refusal to assist.
“India is refusing to comply with certain basic elements that require that conviction to take place,” he said. “It’s important … to present evidence within these courts, for people to come over from India to testify, to put up with whatever the counter-accusations will be.”
Bhutto Zardari said if India is willing to be cooperative in that process, “I am sure there will be no hurdle in extraditing any individual of concern”.
Former foreign minister voiced alarm over India’s pledge to pursue terrorists, describing it as a “new abnormal” that risks escalating tensions. “The new normal or the new abnormal that India would like to impose in the subcontinent … is that any terrorist attack within India means war with Pakistan,” he said. “This does not serve the interests of Pakistan, and it does not serve the interests of India.”
He warned of the broader implications. “Two nuclear-armed countries have got to the point that they have reduced the threshold for military conflict … to this level, which in effect means that we leave the destiny of 1.7 billion people not in the hands of the Pakistani or Indian government, but to nameless, faceless non-state actors.”
Addressing the status of Saeed and Azhar, Bhutto Zardari clarified that Saeed remains in custody. “It is factually not correct that Hafiz Saeed is a free man; he is in the custody of the Pakistani state,” he said. “It is our belief that he (Azhar) is in Afghanistan. If and when the Indian government shares information that he is on Pakistani soil, we will be more than happy to arrest him.” He added that India has not linked these individuals to the specific attack cited as justification for military action.
Bhutto Zardari accused India of exploiting terrorism to justify aggression. “We went to war on a lie. This is a precedent that has been set and India is trying to exploit: you cry terrorist and attack a sovereign Muslim country,” he said.
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