BTN: PM says - "NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED' :: Pakistan won’t handover Mumbai suspects to India - people are just wondering..

PM says - "NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'
[ Click here for the full text of the letter being circulated over internet)

Pakistan won't handover Mumbai suspects to India

Tuesday, 09 Dec, 2008 | 05:50 PM PST |

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. — Reuters MULTAN: Pakistan will not hand over any suspects in the Mumbai attacks investigation to India, but will try them under its own laws, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Tuesday. 'We do not want to impose war, but we are fully prepared in case war is imposed on us,' Qureshi said. 'We are not oblivious to our responsibilities to defend our homeland. But it is our desire that there should be no war.' Qureshi said he was sending 'a very clear message' that his country did not want conflict with India. 'We want friendship, we want peace and we want stability -- but our desire for peace should not be considered Pakistan's weakness.' The minister also said that India's demands for the extradition of suspects in the Mumbai attacks were out of the question and that Pakistan, which has arrested 16 people since Saturday, would keep them on home soil. 'The arrests are being made for our own investigations. Even if allegations are proved against any suspect, he will not be handed over to India,' Qureshi said. 'We will proceed against those arrested under Pakistani laws.' Pakistan has also detained LeT's operations director, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and the head of another Islamic group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said on Tuesday. Indian media say the lone surviving attacker named Lakhvi as a key planner behind the Mumbai attacks. 'Lakhvi was picked up yesterday (Monday). Azhar has also been picked up,' Mukhtar told India's CNN-IBN channel, referring to Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed group. Security officials had earlier suggested Lakhvi was arrested on Saturday. Azhar is reported to be on a list of people India last week asked Pakistan to extradite in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. He is wanted in India over the 2001 parliament attack. In a commentary published on Tuesday in the New York Times, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said the arrests were proof that his country was committed to fighting terrorism. 'As was demonstrated in Sunday's raids, which resulted in the arrest of militants, Pakistan will take action against the non-state actors found within our territory, treating them as criminals, terrorists and murderers,' he wrote.

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