Dawood not in Pakistan, counters Pakistan envoy

A day after India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh asserted in Parliament that 1993 Mumbai mastermind Dawood Ibrahim was in Pakistan, and India would do anything to bring him back to justice, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit has chosen to go into denial mode yet again, saying Dawood wasn’t in his country, and it has no information about its whereabouts.

Speaking at a press conference in Lucknow on May 11, the high commissioner said, “I can only say he is not in Pakistan.”

Referring to the recently acquitted 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Mr Basit underlined that Islamabad was pursuing the case will utmost seriousness following its laws and legal procedures, and that Lakhvi was out on a bail, which didn’t mean he was acquitted.

Making it clear that “nobody can justify a terror attack,” the envoy underlined that Pakistan understood its responsibility and had arrested seven people accused of plotting the Mumbai terror attack, and the trial was on. “We can’t reach premature conclusion,” he added.

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