Holding that the location of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was never a secret, India on Thursday said that the recent report by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the issue only reveals the double standards of Pakistan and its inability to take action against terror groups operating on its soil.
"The location of Dawood Ibrahim is not a secret. Time and again we have been presenting to Pakistan a list of people who are in their country. We have asked repeatedly that he should be handed over. His imprint on the Mumbai blast is very clear for all of us to see," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
"You (Pakistan) claim that you have taken action but when it comes to taking action against people who we have demanded you go into denial mode. On the other hand, you try to project to the international community that you are taking some action against the terrorists operating from the soil," the spokesperson added.
"This basically is a case of double standards. This is something where they stand completely exposed as far as their claims of taking action against terror groups in Pakistan is concerned," he stressed.
Dawood Ibrahim, who is wanted in India in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, is hiding in Pakistan, the FBI claimed after secretly recording his close aide and Karachi-based businessman Jabir Motiwala.
On Tuesday, the second day of Motiwala's extradition hearing to the United States, at the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, Barrister John Hardy, on behalf of the US government, said, "Motiwala was a high ranking member of the D-company, a criminal orgsation run by Dawood Ibrahim."
Hardy also claimed that during his interaction with the FBI agents, the businessman disclosed activities of D-company in India, United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan.
In addition, speaking on Pakistan's booking of Jamaat-ud-Dawa's Hafiz Saeed and others in cases of terror financing, Kumar said, "Let us not get fooled by such cosmetic steps. Pakistan's sincerity to take action against terrorists and terror groups will be judged on the basis of their ability to demonstrate verifiable, credible and irreversible action against terror groups operating from their soil and not on the basis of half-hearted measures which they undertake sometimes to hoodwink the international community."
The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Pakistan's Punjab province on Wednesday registered multiple cases against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed and 12 of his aides, including his brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki, according to The Express Tribune.
"We want a normal relationship in an environment free from terror," Kumar added.
The action came in the wake of previous warnings by the Financial Action Task Force, whereby the terror financing watchdog had re-instated a ban on Pakistan-based two terror outfits linked to Saeed, namely JuD and the Falah-e-Insat Foundation, earlier in February.
The move was also made amid global pressure against Pakistan to clamp down on the terror groups following the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) initiated Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel.
India has time and again called for creating trust and an environment free of violence and terrorism for fostering peace and prosperity in the region.
( With inputs from ANI )