Pak confirms India asked to extradite LeT founder and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed

Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday confirmed that India has sought the extradition of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and a UN-proscribed terrorist, who is wanted by Indian probe agencies in several terror cases.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Friday 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.

Dawn.com reported that when it reached out for comments on the issue, 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-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.