ISLAMABAD – The Foreign Office confirmed on Friday that India has formally asked Pakistan to extradite Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JuD).
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement, “Pakistan has received a request from the Indian authorities, seeking extradition of Hafiz Saeed in a so-called money laundering case.”
However, there might be no plans to follow up on India’s request, as according to the spokesperson, “no bilateral extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and India”.
India blames Saeed for being involved in attacks across the borders. However, the chief of the banned outfit has denied all claims.
Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the armed group blamed by the United States and India for the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege, was sentenced to 31 years in prison by a Pakistani court in two cases of terrorism financing.
Hours before Zahra’s confirmation, India confirmed it had formally requested Pakistan to extradite Saeed. India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “We have conveyed a request along with relevant supporting documents to the Government of Pakistan.”
Saeed’s conviction in 2022 was not the only one. Arrested in 2019, he was already serving a 15-year sentence after being found guilty of terror financing in 2020.
Saeed, who was put behind bars many times before over the past decade, denies involvement in armed operations, including the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.
