Pak refuses to hand over 20 terrorists wanted by India

Islamabad, Dec 3 (PTI) Pakistan will not hand over any of
the listed 20 terrorists wanted by India in the wake of the
terror attacks in Mumbai, according to a media report.

Some of the terrorists in the list currently do not live
in the country while others are under constant surveillance by
Pakistan's security and intelligence agencies, official
sources told the The News daily.

"There is no precedent of handing over any alleged
suspect to India and vice versa. So turning these 20 persons
over to India is out of question because we have our own
surveillance apparatus in place and we have confirmed that
none of them was involved in any suspected activity while some
of them are currently not even living in Pakistan," the paper
quoted an official as saying.

"The organisations banned by the (Pervez) Musharraf
regime in the wake of the 9/11 incident have been under
constant surveillance and all those freed have already been
cleared by intelligence agencies after thorough
investigations," he said.

There has been no official word on the names included in
the list, which was discussed at a meeting of political
parties convened Tuesday by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
to evolve a consensus on dealing with the tensions with India.

Emerging from the meeting, former federal minister Sheikh
Rashid Ahmed said the names of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim
and Tiger Memon and Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Maulana Masood
Azhar figured in the list. Ahmed also said there was nothing
new about India's demand for handing over these men.

The name of Lashker-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed
is also on the list, official sources said. The LeT has been
blamed by Indian security officials for carrying out the
Mumbai attacks.

After the LeT was banned by Pakistan in 2001, Saeed
formed the Jamat-ud-Dawah, which has its headquarters at
Muridke near Lahore.

India says Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of the 1993
bombings in Mumbai that killed nearly 260 people, is living in
Pakistan but authorities here have denied the accusation.

The official told paper that members of the outlawed
groups, who were involved in suspicious activities, had been
apprehended when a crackdown was launched against such
elements by the Musharraf regime.

Jamat-ud-Dawah spokesman Yahya Mujahid rejected Indian
charges about Saeed's links to the attacks and said Pakistani
authorities are "already watching their activities". Had there
been any doubts, "they would not have been allowed to go
free", he said.

"Everybody knows that the previous regime would not have
let us live in freedom had it suspected any of our activities.
It is mere Indian propaganda so as to conceal the failure of
its intelligence and law enforcement agencies," Mujahid
claimed.

"The Indian claims are aimed at hoodwinking the Indian
people. However, it is up to the Pakistani government to
decide as to what to do and how to respond to the Indian
demand in a befitting manner," he said.

When his attention was drawn to reports about fears that
India might carry out air strikes on the headquarters of the
Jamat-ud-Dawah in Muridke, Mujahid refused to comment saying
it was the responsibility of Pakistan's armed forces to
protect the country's frontiers against any outside
aggression.

"Like all other people of the country, we will stand
behind the armed forces of the country if the Indians resort
to any aggression against Pakistan to conceal their own
criminal negligence that resulted in the Mumbai mayhem," he
said. PTI RHL
SAK
NNNN