Where is Masood Azhar? Pakistan has no clue about Jaish chief's location, says Bilawal Bhutto – may be ‘in Afghanistan’

Pakistan's former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has claimed that Islamabad has been unable to identify where Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar is. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chief said Pakistan would be ‘more than happy’ to arrest Azhar if India provides credible information confirming his presence on Pakistani soil.

Bhutto said Pakistan believes that he might as well be in Afghanistan.

“As far as Masood Azhar is concerned, we have been unable to arrest him or identify him. Given his past within the Afghan jihad context, it is our belief that he is in Afghanistan,” Bhutto told Sreenivasan Jain in an interview on Aljazeera English.

Azhar is one of India's most-wanted terrorists and has been involved in the 2001 Parliament attack, 26/11 Mumbai attacks, 2016 Pathankot attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack.

India has been demanding that Pakistan hand over Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. 

"If and when the Indian government shares information with us that he is on Pakistani soil, we would be more than happy to arrest him. The fact is…” Bhutto said in the interview.

Azhar, who was designated a global terrorist by the United Nations in 2019, was released in exchange for the passengers of IC-814 after the Kandahar hijacking in 1999.

When asked why Pakistan would expect, or wait for, India to give information about Azhar, the PPP chief said, "When you have a CT (counterterrorism) cooperation with any country, we provide groups of our concern, they provide groups of their concern. That's how we managed to thwart attacks here in London, thwart attacks in New York, thwart attacks in Pakistan," he said.

Bhutto's PPP is part of the ruling coalition headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Pakistan.

'Hafiz Saeed is in Pakistan's custody'

"As far as Masood Azhar is concerned, if he is in Afghanistan, the West has now handed over to a group that once upon a time they called terrorists, and now they call the people in charge of Afghanistan... It's not possible for Pakistan to go and do what all of NATO was unable to do within Afghanistan. There's no reason for Pakistan to want to see this individual or any individual of concern to be active," be said.

Bhutto also said that Hafiz Saeed is not a free man in Pakistan. To a question on a New York Times report saying that Hafiz Saeed is free man in Pakistan, Bhutto said, “That's not accurate. That's factually not correct that Hafiz Saeed is a free man. He is in the custody of the Pakistani state,” he said.

Bhutto's remarks come in the backdrop of India-Pakistan tensions following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 people, mostly tourists were killed. 

India responded with a series of cross-border airstrikes under Operation Sindoor, targeting major terror hubs including Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base in Muridke and Jaish-e-Mohammed’s headquarters in Bahawalpur.

Azhar had claimed that ten of his family members and four close aides were killed in the Indian strikes.