Pakistan’s Bilawal Bhutto Zardari refuses to acknowledge Dawood Ibrahim’s handover to India
Pakistan Foreign Affairs Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday didn’t even acknowledge the question of whether handing over underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to India would ease the tensions between the two neighbours.
He blamed India’s Kashmir policy for the “frozen peace” between India and Pakistan.
While speaking to India Today’s Consultant Editor Rajdeep Sardesai, Zardari said: “The frozen peace is a result of the action of August 5, 2019, when India unilaterally violated international law, UN resolutions and bilateral agreements between India and Pakistan.”
Dawood Ibrahim, who heads a vast and multifaceted illegal business, has emerged as India’s most wanted terrorist after the 1993 Mumbai bombings. He already faces a bounty of $25 million on his head by the United Nations Security Council in 2003.
He is one of the most wanted men along with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, Hizbul Mujahideen founder Syed Salahuddin and his close aide Abdul Rauf Asghar.
The India-Pakistan relationship soured significantly after India announced the withdrawal of special powers from Jammu and Kashmir and the division of the state into two union territories in August 2019.
India has always maintained that it wants regular neighbourly ties with Pakistan while emphasising that the onus is on Islamabad to create a safe environment for such an engagement.
“If we are to have any engagement, if we are to have any dialogue, presumably that will lead to some sort of documentation or written agreement,” Bhutto, who is in Goa to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting said.
“No trust Pakistan has in India’s commitment to bilateral and multilateral agreements,” he added.
