January 10, 2004 ☼ Security

The good news is India and Pakistan will discuss a mutual extradition treaty (hopefully in right earnest). But as the Deccan Chronicle reports, even before the treaty has been negotiated Pakistan has excluded two of the most vicious jehadi terrorist kingpins - Masood Azhar of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hafiz Saeed of Lashkar-e-Toiba ! This on the grounds that they are Pakistani citizens and hence not subject to extradition. I did’nt see the Pakistani Foreign Office argue that when they air-freighted folks like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Guantanamo Bay.

I wonder if Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed will ever be called in to account for their crimes. Its certainly not beyond Musharraf to let them off lightly in return for buying their silence for a period of time. The strange thing is that it was a Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist implicated both in the failed attempt on Musharraf’s life, as well as the attack on Jammu railway station during the Vajpayee-Musharraf handshake. So why is the Pakistani establishment still trying to protect these queen bees of jehadi terrorism?

If, as the report suggests, India has unilaterally dropped the demands to extradite these gentlemen, it had better be on the back of assurances that they will be dealt with by Musharraf’s men.

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