Pak won’t hand over Dawood, Sallahudin

NEW DELHI: India’s attempt to nail President Pervez Musharraf to his promise by asking for the handover of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Hizbul chief Syed Sallahudin for terror strikes in India, has been rejected by Islamabad.

In an interview to an Indian television channel, Pakistan’s foreign minister Khurshid Mohammed Kasuri has made it plain that Pakistan had no intention of turning in these two men. This demand has been a regular one raised by India at every meeting of the home secretaries of the two countries.

Kasuri also made it plain that Islamabad will not allow Indian authorities to question leaders of banned militant groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Nor will it furnish records of interrogation of LeT leader Hafiz Mohammed Sayed and JeM chief Masood Azhar, until the two counties build enough trust and confidence between themselves.

The foreign minister made it clear that his government had not allowed the US, an “ally for the last 50 years” to question disgraced nuclear scientist AQ Khan. The point Kasuri put across was that Washington was a firm ally and had not interrogated Khan. There could be no question of giving in to such a demand from India. New Delhi however has never asked Pakistan for the right to question any of these men. All India wants is for Pakistan to hand over Dawood and Sallauhudin. These demands are not made with much seriousness, but basically to score points against the Pakistan establishment.

The war of words between India and Pakistan which has mounted since the Mumbai blasts, is now on in  earnestness, reminiscent of the times when slanging matches were the order of the day. This had come down considerably since the two countries embarked on the peace process.

That now seems to have been abandoned by both sides. New Delhi’s demand for handing over Dawood and the Hizbul leader, came a day after President Musharraf in a TV address chided India for pointing fingers at Pakistan without concrete evidence to back these charges.

India retaliated, with foreign office spokesman Navtej Sarna saying that there was plenty of evidence against both Dawood and Sallahudin, but Islamabad had refused to hand them over for questioning by Indian authorities.

For the moment the war of words will further erode the already wavering peace process between India and Pakistan.