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ShareISLAMABAD: Pakistan Monday rejected India'sdemand to hand over three terrorists and criminals, including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, saying that action would be
taken against individuals found involved in terrorist activities under Pakistani law.
Islamabad's response to a demarche from India seeking the handing over of the three came hours after security forces launched a crackdown on Lashker-e-Toiba, arresting suspected Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi and eight other militants.
India had made the demand in the second demarche handed over to Pakistan in the wake of last week's terror attacks in Mumbai that killed over 180 people and injured dozens more.
Pakistan's response, handed over by Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir to Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal during a meeting this evening, indicated that Islamabad would itself take action against individuals if information provided by New Delhi proved they were involved in terrorism, diplomatic sources said.
The sources said the reply stated that action would be taken against such individuals "with the ambit of Pakistani law". The response also stated that Pakistani authorities
would act on any information provided by India on the Mumbai attacks, they said.
The response also reiterated Pakistan's offer to conduct a joint investigation with India into the Mumbai attacks and for full cooperation, including intelligence sharing, the
sources said.
The second demarche, given on December 1, asked Pakistan to hand over mob boss Dawood Ibrahim, the mastermind of the 1993 bombings in Mumbai that killed nearly 260 people, Tiger Memon and Maulana Masood Azhar.
Sources said Pakistan's response to the demarche was finalised during a meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet chaired this afternoon by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani too attended the meeting.
India's first demarche, handed over on November 29, had expressed its concerns about the involvement of Pakistan-based elements in the attacks and asked the Pakistan government to take action against them.
Pakistan's response to the first demarche, submitted on December 1, included an offer to assist India in probing the Mumbai attacks. It also refuted allegations about Pakistan's
"complicity" in the terrorist strike.
Even before the handing over of the formal response to the second demarche, interior ministry chief Rehman Malik had said on Thursday that Pakistan would not take action against Masood Azhar unless India provided "concrete evidence" of his involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
Malik, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, had also said Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon were Indian citizens and were not in Pakistan.
