Pakistan has no objection to extraditing ‘individuals of concern’ to India: Bilawal Bhutto

Pakistan’s erstwhile Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that his state had nary objection to extraditing “individuals of concern” to India arsenic a confidence-building measure, arsenic agelong arsenic New Delhi showed willingness to cooperate successful the process.

Mr. Bilawal, the president of the Pakistan People's Party, made the comments successful an interrogation with Al Jazeera connected Friday (July 4, 2025) portion responding to a question astir extraditing Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) main Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) main Masood Azhar arsenic imaginable concessions and good-faith gestures to India, Dawn paper reported.

“As portion of a broad dialog with Pakistan, wherever coercion is 1 of the issues that we discuss, I americium definite Pakistan would not beryllium opposed to immoderate of these things,” Mr. Bilawal said.

Both LeT and JeM person been banned by Pakistan, according to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), portion Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai panic onslaught mastermind, is presently serving a 33-year condemnation for panic financing, and Azhar, a UN-designated planetary terrorist, has been proscribed by Nacta.

Mr. Bilawal said that cases prosecuted against these “individuals” were those related to Pakistan, specified arsenic violent financing. However, helium noted that prosecuting them for cross-border coercion was hard owed to what helium claimed was "noncompliance" from Delhi.

“India is refusing to comply with definite basal elements that necessitate that condemnation to instrumentality place,” helium said. “It’s important … to contiguous grounds wrong these courts, for radical to travel implicit from India to testify, to enactment up with immoderate the counter-accusations volition be."

“If India is consenting to beryllium cooperative successful that process, I americium definite determination volition beryllium nary hurdle successful extraditing immoderate idiosyncratic of concern,” helium added.

Mr. Bilawal besides expressed interest astir India’s vow to prosecute terrorists, calling it a “new abnormal”.

“This does not service the interests of Pakistan, and it does not service the interests of India," helium added.

Pressed connected the whereabouts of Saeed and Azhar, Mr. Bilawal stated that the erstwhile was incarcerated, portion Islamabad believes the second is successful Afghanistan.

“It is factually not close that Hafiz Saeed is simply a escaped man; helium is successful the custody of the Pakistani state,” helium maintained, stating that Islamabad has been incapable to apprehension Azhar.

“It is our content that helium is successful Afghanistan,” Mr. Bilawal stated. “If and erstwhile the Indian authorities shares accusation that helium is connected Pakistani soil, we volition beryllium much than blessed to apprehension him."