Qureshi:No extradition treaty with India
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Sunday again ruled out hand-over of suspects of Mumbai attacks to India a day after the Indian prime minister asked Islamabad to hand over those behind the attacks.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi renewed Pakistan’s policy at a press conference that no suspect would be handed over to India.
“We do not have an extradition treaty with India,” Qureshi tolda news conference at the eastern Pakistani city of Multan.
He said that Pakistan had an extradition treaty with the U.S.
However, “Please do not compare, every situation is not identical,” Qureshi said when a journalist asked him about the hand-over of Pakistanis to the U.S.
Qureshi admitted that the Mumbai attacks, which killed about 170 people, had caused a setback for relations between Pakistan and India.
“There is a pause in the composite dialogue but we will endeavor to end this pause and move towards normal relations. We must emerge from the stress that has developed in our relations,” he said.
Qureshi said that tension with India had reduced but had not yet been fully over.
“Friends and important nations in the region and beyond played positive roles to defuse the tension,” he said, adding that good relations with India would remain Pakistan’s policy.
“The Mumbai incident was a serious matter. There were great losses. Now we should find a solution that such attacks are not taken place in India, Pakistan and any other country in future,” he said.
“We have to reach at the bottom of the matter that such incidents should not repeat in future. The region is under the threat of terrorism. There should be regional approach for solution. It is in our own interest,” said the Pakistani foreign minister.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday asked Pakistan tohand over “criminals responsible for Mumbai attacks so that they face trial in India.”
At the press conference, Qureshi also announced that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher would be visiting Pakistan and would meet him on Monday.
Pak denies reports of letting India to quiz 26/11 suspects
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has denied media reports that Pakistan may allow Indian investigators
to “grill” the Mumbai attack suspects after being provided with “sufficient evidence”.
“I have been questioned enough times on this matter, I have answered already. You know the policy of Pakistan. We have a treaty with US, there is no extradition treaty with India. There is no need to compare the two, no two situations are the same,” said Qureshi.
Earlier, The Nation newspaper in Pakistan had said quoting a senior unnamed Pakistani official, “At the most, Pakistan could permit the Indians to grill the people now under detention and being questioned by the Pakistani authorities and blamed by New Delhi for a key role in the Mumbai carnage. However, there is no likelihood that they will be handed over to India.”
Lashkar-e-Toiba operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the suspected mastermind of the Mumbai attack, and its communications specialist Zarar Shah are among the militants detained in Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
Pakistan has turned down repeated demands from India for them to be handed over to New Delhi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said: “India does not want war with Pakistan but it must hand over the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks.”
But, the Pakistani official said that instead of indulging in “a blame-game,” India should provide substantial evidence about the involvement of Lakhvi, Shah or any other person in the Mumbai attacks to Pakistan.
“If this is done, Indian investigators could be given access to the wanted persons on Pakistani soil,” he added.
The official said the same went for law enforcement or investigation agencies from across the world. “But the main thing is sufficient evidence proving the involvement of those who are being blamed,” the official said.
He said Pakistan was carrying out its own investigations into the Mumbai attacks and was ready for a joint probe with India. So far, there had been no response from India to Pakistan’s offer for a joint probe, he said.
(With, NDTV & PTI inputs)
About This Post
