Hafiz Saeed is on an international list of terrorists: Meenakshi Lekhi

NEW DELHI: Union Minister of State Meenakshi Lekhi emphasized on Saturday that despite Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed being on the international list of terrorists, Pakistan has never reacted to it.

On extradition request to Pakistan to hand over 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, MoS MEA Meenakashi Lekhi stressed that Hafiz Saeed was behind a lot of incidents that have happened in India.

"Everyone knows that Hafiz Saeed was behind the Mumbai attacks. A lot of incidents have happened in India and Hafiz Saeed was behind them as well," she told ANI "India has maintained this since the beginning and he is also on the international list of terrorists, but despite that, Pakistan has never reacted to that," she added.

Lekhi further told ANI, that India has conveyed a request along with relevant supporting documents, to the Pakistan government to extradite him to India. "But, now once again, we have conveyed a request along with relevant supporting documents to the Government of Pakistan to extradite him to India (to face trial in a particular case)," she added.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday that India had conveyed a request to the Pakistani government regarding the extradition of the 26/11 attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed to India for facing trial in a particular case.

This comes after the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), a political entity of Hafiz Saeed has fielded candidates for every national and provincial assembly constituency across Pakistan for the upcoming general elections slated to be held on February 8, 2024.

Hafiz Saeed's son Talha Saeed is also going to contest the polls from National Assembly's constituency NA-127, Lahore, while PMML's central president Khalid Masood Sindhu is taking part from NA-130, against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo and former PM Nawaz Sharif.

Allowing the radical outfits including Hafiz Saeed's son to contest polls in Pakistan, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi that Pakistan has been indulging in the mainstreaming of "radical outfits" as a part of its state policy, adding that India continues to monitor the situation as it has "serious security implications" for regional security.

Addressing the weekly briefing, Bagchi said, "The person in question (Hafiz Saeed) is wanted in numerous cases in India. He is also a UN-proscribed terrorist.

In this regard, we have conveyed a request along with relevant supporting documents, to the government of Pakistan to extradite him to India to face trial in a particular case.

Muhammad Hafiz Saeed, who has been in jail since July 17, 2019, for other charges, was sentenced in April 2022 by a special anti-terrorism court in Lahore, Pakistan, to a jail term of 33 years for "financing terrorism."

Despite being designated a terrorist by the UN and EU in the 2000s, Saeed was neither charged nor extradited over nearly two decades. Saeed was designated as a terrorist by the United Nations Security Council in December 2008.