New Delhi will again ask Islamabad to hand over 25 fugitives, including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim at an upcoming meeting of the two foreign ministers. Replying to questions in the Rajya Sabha, the Indian minister of state for External Affairs, E Ahamed, said 15 of those named in the list of fugitives had Interpol Red Corner notices against them. He said New Delhi has asked Islamabad to arrest and hand over Dawood Ibrahim.
Ahamed said the list of 25 fugitives included the names of 20 given by India soon after the December 13, 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. He said Pakistan maintains that it will not handover any Pakistani citizen to India and has also rejected the Indian claim that it has provided asylum to non-Pakistanis wanted in India. He said national security prevented him from making the list public. He said despite several requests, Pakistan had not responded positively to its suggestion for an extradition treaty. He said New Delhi had made the request for fugitives to be handed over several times after the Mumbai blasts, the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar and the terrorist attack on Parliament, but there had been no response from Islamabad.
| Nor do I expect there will be one. Too many fingers to be pointed, too many secrets to be unsecreted... |
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