Kolkata: India’s eyes were not shut on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, but “some international compulsions” were hindering his extradition from Pakistan, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday.
Addressing a media conference at the Press Club here, Rajnath Singh asserted that the government will not tolerate anyone raising pro-Pakistan slogans, and said his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not wavered from its long-held stance favouring abrogation of Article 370 that guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
“On Dawood, I will only say we have not kept our eyes closed,” Rajnath Singh said at the media conference called on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government.
“But you know there are some international compulsions due to which there are often some obstacles,” the minister said to questions about Dawood’s extradition from Pakistan.
There was a controversy recently over junior home minister Parathibhai Chaudhary’s reply in the Lok Sabha that Dawood’s location was unknown and extradition proceedings against him would start once he was traced.
Rajnath Singh had then clarified that India has credible information that Dawood was in Pakistan and the central government would not rest till he is brought back.
Pakistan has denied time and again the fugitive’s presence on its soil.
Terming the one-year progress report of the NDA government “excellent”, the home minister said the country has moved out of the crisis of policy paralysis and India’s rating has turned positive globally.
He said the GDP has now increased to seven percent and exuded confidence that the country would see a double-digit GDP growth within three-four years.
