'Masood Azhar not in Pakistan'

Islamabad, Dec 18: Pakistan is in no mood to admit any facts. Earlier they told Azam Amir Kasav, the lone terrorist caught alive after Mumbai terror attacks is not a Pakistani. Now they say that underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim and Jaish-e-Mohammed supremo Maulana Masood Azhar, both are in India's most wanted list, are not in Pakistan.

"Maulana Masood Azhar is wanted by the government of Pakistan, but he is not in our custody and he is at large," said Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Pak Foreign Minister. Qureshi's remarks came about a week after Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar told a TV channel that Azhar had been detained by Pakistani authorities.

Who is Masood Azhar?

Masood Azhar and other two terrorists were freed by India in exchange of the passengers of an Indian Airlines flight that was hijacked from Kathmandu to Kandahar in Dec 1999. Soon after his release Azhar fleed to Pakistan and formed a new terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

After Nov 26 Mumbai Terror Attacks, India has asked Pakistan to handover Azhar and 20 other suspects including Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon. But Pak is of the view that even though it is ready to take action against all terror suspects, it will not hand them over to India.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)