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Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has claimed that Islamabad is not aware about the whereabouts of UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar as Pakistan is unable to identify Jaish-e-Mohammed chief.
He further asserted that the country would be "happy to" arrest him if India provides information about terrorist's presence on Pakistani soil.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Bhutto, whose party is part of the ruling coalition in the country, said Hafiz Saeed is not a free man in Pakistan and Masood Azhar may be in Afghanistan.
Masood Azhar is one of India's most-wanted terrorist, who played a prominent role in the 2001 Parliament attack, 26/11 Mumbai attacks, 2016 Pathankot attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack, among others.
Masood Azhar was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations in 2019 under 1267 UN Sanctions Committee. India has been demanding that Pakistan should hand over Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed but Islamabad has been showing its ignorance despite evidence of them being active there.
Azhar was released in exchange for the passengers of IC-814 after the Kandahar hijacking in 1999.
To a question on a New York Times report stating that Saeed is free, Bhutto said, "That's not accurate. That's factually not correct that Hafiz Saeed is a free man. He is in the custody of the Pakistani state. As far as Masood Azhar is concerned, we have been unable to arrest him or identify him. Given his past within the Afghan jihad context, it is our belief that he is in Afghanistan."
India had, several times, requested that Pakistan extradite the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed for trial in India but Saeed 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 USD10 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.
This statement of Bhutto comes after Operation Sindoor was conducted on the night of May 6-7, targeting nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. One of the targeted locations was the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) stronghold in Bahawalpur. The operation was a retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 that claimed the lives of 26 people.
The operation involved missile strikes on terror infrastructure, including recruitment and indoctrination centers, as well as launchpads. The strikes were aimed at disrupting terrorist activities and preventing future attacks.
Bilawal Bhutto also stated, "If and when the Indian government shares information with us that he is on Pakistani soil, we would be more than happy to arrest him. The fact is, the Indian government is not...".
When asked why Pakistan should wait or expect that India should share information involving Azhar, the PPP chief said, "When you have a CT (counterterrorism) cooperation with any country, we provide groups of our concern, they provide groups of their concern. That's how we managed to thwart attacks here in London, thwart attacks in New York, thwart attacks in Pakistan."
"As far as Masood Azhar is concerned, if he is in Afghanistan, the West has now handed over to a group that once upon a time they called terrorists, and now they call the people in charge of Afghanistan... It's not possible for Pakistan to go and do what all of NATO was unable to do within Afghanistan. There's no reason for Pakistan to want to see this individual or any individual of concern to be active," Bilawal said.
