"How Can He Offer My Father...": Hafiz Saeed's Son Targets Bilawal Bhutto
Comments by Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto - that his country would be "more than happy" to find, arrest and extradite terrorist leaders like Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saaed to India - have not gone down well in certain quarters.
In a video shared on X Sunday afternoon Hafiz Saeed's son, Hafiz Talha Saeed, ripped into Bhutto, declaring the Pakistan People's Party chief "is not a true Muslim" and demanding an apology.
"... how can he offer (up) my father like this?" Talha said in the video, as he called on "patriotic media" in Pakistan to "critically discuss" the statement by Bilawal Bhutto.
Talha Saeed also questioned Bhutto's ability to represent Pak on foreign policy matters.
"We hope our patriotic media will critically discuss Mr Bhutto's statement... whose family and party have a history of toeing Western and Indian narratives against Pakistan and, on instances, providing them with critical information harming national security," the terrorist's son said.
Jaish terrorist outfit boss Masood Azhar (File).
Last week Bhutto spoke to Al Jazeera and said Islamabad does not know where Masood Azhar is.
Azhar, leader of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed, is one of India's most-wanted terrorists; he is linked to the attack on Parliament in 2001 and Mumbai in 2011, as well as attacks on the Indian military in Pathankot in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019.
READ | "Pak Doesn't Know Where Masood Azhar Is...": Bilawal Bhutto's Stunner
Azhar was in Indian custody till the government released him (and other terrorists) in 1999 in exchange for the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814.
Laskhar terrorist outfit boss Hafiz Saeed (File).
Hafiz Saeed, meanwhile, is the boss of the (also banned) Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group, a proxy of which was responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, in which 26 people, mostly civilians, were killed. Saeed is nominally under house arrest in Pak, although that is disputed.
India has repeatedly said Masood Azhar's JeM and Hafiz Saeed's LeT (and other terrorist outfits) operate with impunity from Pakistan, with the support of the Pak deep state.
READ | Pak 'One Of World's Most Dangerous, Terror Trail In Moscow, London'
The Pakistani side, on the other hand, has always denied links to state-sponsored terrorism.
Responding to a question by Al Jazeera - on a report by The New York Times stating Saeed is, in effect, a free man, Bhutto had said, "That's not correct... Hafiz Saeed is in the custody of the Pakistani state. As far as Masood Azhar is concerned, we have been unable to arrest him..."
"If, and when, the Indian government shares information with us that he (Masood Azhar) is on Pakistani soil, we would be more than happy to arrest him..." he said.
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