India seeks extradition of 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed

New Delhi: Even as a political party backed by him is set to contest for all seats in the February 8 general elections in Pakistan, New Delhi has of late asked Islamabad to extradite 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed to stand trial in India.

Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, was the mastermind of the November 26-28, 2008, carnage in Mumbai. Though New Delhi has not been successful in its earlier attempts to bring him to justice for orchestrating the terrorist attacks in India, it has once again asked Islamabad to extradite the 75-year-old, currently incarcerated in a jail in Pakistan.

New Delhi, according to the sources, forwarded the request for his extradition from India’s law-enforcement agencies to the Government of Pakistan through diplomatic channels.

The latest move is intended to remind Islamabad that New Delhi would never give up in its pursuit of bringing the anti-India terrorist leaders based in Pakistan to justice.

Saeed was designated as a terrorist by the United Nations Security Council in December 2008. Though the pressure from New Delhi and Washington DC prompted Islamabad to detain or arrest him in the past few years, he always managed to get himself bailed out. He was however arrested by police from Lahore in July 2019 after the Financial Action Task Force – an intergovernmental organisation – stepped up pressure on the Government of Pakistan to act against him for his alleged involvement in the financing of terror. He was eventually sentenced to imprisonment for 33 years.

New Delhi made the move even as the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), a party perceived to be backed by Saeed, fielded candidates for all national and provincial assembly constituencies ahead of the February 8 general elections. Saeed’s son Talha Saeed would also contest from NA-127 Lahore constituency in the National Assembly elections.