Islamabad: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari refused to extradite 20 suspects identified in India’s list of wanted criminals, saying they would be tried in Pakistan if New Delhi provided hard evidence, media reports said Wednesday.
“I am definitely going to look into all the possibility of any proof that is given to us. At the moment, these are just names of individuals. No proof, no investigation, nothing has been brought forward,” Zardari said on CNN’s Larry King Live program Tuesday night.
If proof of criminal activity is provided, “we would try them in our courts, we would try them in our land, and we would sentence them,” he added.
Indian authorities on Monday gave a list of 20 suspected fugitives to Pakistani envoy in India demanding their repatriation. The list included Masood Azhar, a leader of the Islamic militant Jaish-e-Mohammed group, and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed.
It also included Mumbai crime lord Dawood Ibrahim, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai bombings, and the Sikh leaders Wadhwan Singh, Ranjit Singh and Gajinder Singh, who are wanted in connection with an insurgency in Indian state of Punjab in the 1980s.
India’s demand came as tensions ran high between the two South Asian nuclear-armed neighbours following Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed more than 180 people last week.
India say the lone surviving attacker, identified as Ajmal Amir Kasab, told police interrogators he was a Pakistani national.
But Zardari doubted the claims. “We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt it,” the president told CNN.
A report in Pakistan daily The Nation said there was nothing new in India’s list of wanted men, saying it was the same list that New Delhi has been submitting to Pakistan after every terrorist attack on its soil during several years.
“Since it contains nothing new there would be no response at all from Pakistan,” an official told the newspaper. (dpa)
