Masood Azhar may be in Afghanistan, will arrest him if India shares info that he is in Pak: Bilawal Bhutto
Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has claimed Islamabad does not know where Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar is, adding that Islamabad would be "happy to" arrest him if India can provide information on his whereabouts in his country.
He said Pakistan believes he might be in Afghanistan.
Masood Azhar is one of India's most-wanted terrorists and has been involved in the 2001 Parliament attack, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the 2016 Pathankot attack, and the 2019 Pulwama attack, among others.
Azhar, who was designated a global terrorist by the United Nations in 2019, was released in exchange for the passengers of IC-814 after the Kandahar hijacking in 1999.
India has been demanding that Pakistan hand over Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto said Saeed is not a free man in Pakistan, and Azhar may be in Afghanistan.
Responding 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."
"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..." he said.
Asked on why Pakistan would expect, or wait for, India to give information about 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."
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