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'Not able to track or identify Masood Azhar but given his jihad context, Pakistan believes he is in Afghanistan', says the country's ex-foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, adding that 'if India can prove he is in Islamabad, we would be happy to arrest him'.   

 

Bilawal, who is the chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, made the comments in an interview with media house, Al Jazeera on Friday as he responded to the Journalist's query regarding the extradition of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.

 

"As part of a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan, where terrorism is one of the issues that we discuss, I am sure Pakistan would not be opposed to any of these things,” Bilawal said.  

 

Hafiz Saeed is serving his sentence, says Bhutto

 

Both LeT and JeM have been banned by Pakistan, according to the National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), while Saeed, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, is currently serving a 33-year sentence for terror financing, and Azhar, a UN-designated global terrorist, has been proscribed by Nacta.

 

Also Read: Pak rules out possibility of armed conflict with India for now

 

Bilawal said that cases prosecuted against these “individuals” were those related to Pakistan, such as terrorist financing. However, he noted that prosecuting them for cross-border terrorism was difficult due to what he claimed was "noncompliance" from Delhi.  

 

“India is refusing to comply with certain basic elements that require that conviction to take place. It’s important … to present evidence within these courts, for people to come over from India to testify, to put up with whatever the counter-accusations will be," he said. 

 

"If India is willing to be cooperative in that process, I am sure there will be no hurdle in extraditing any individual of concern," he added. 

In a bombshell admission, top Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto tells me his government is unclear of the whereabouts of the UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar.

Azhar’s group is said to be behind some of the deadliest attacks on India.

Watch my full interview with Bilawal… pic.twitter.com/BfPWW2Xaqv

— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) July 4, 2025

Bilawal also expressed concern about India’s vow to pursue terrorists, calling it a "new abnormal", adding, "This does not serve the interests of Pakistan, and it does not serve the interests of India."

 

“It is factually not correct that Hafiz Saeed is a free man; he is in the custody of the Pakistani state,” he maintained, stating that Islamabad has been unable to arrest Azhar.