Pak on India's request to extradite Hafiz Saeed: No bilateral extradition treaty

Pakistan has confirmed that India has sought the extradition of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, but added there was "no bilateral extradition treaty" between the two countries.

The 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and a UN-proscribed terrorist Hafiz Saeed is wanted by Indian probe agencies in several terror cases.

On Friday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said 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, adding that Saeed is also a UN-proscribed terrorist.

According to the Pakistani media, 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”.

She added that “it is pertinent to note that no bilateral extradition treaty exists between Pakistan and India.”

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.

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 has been listed as one of India's most wanted terrorists and carries a $10 million bounty placed by the US for his alleged involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The attacks, orchestrated on November 26, 2008, over the course of four days, killed as many as 166 people and injured 300.