Hafiz Saeed | Photo Credit: AP, File Image

Beijing: As the international pressure mounts to act on the Mumbai terror attacks mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, China has asked its ally Pakistan to move him to a West Asian country. Beijing has requested Islamabad to look for options to relocate Saeed, who is on the radar of international and Indian agencies for his links with terror activities.

Last month, during the Boao Forum in China in April, President Xi Jinping has made a suggestion to Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to move Saeed to a West Asian country in order for him to peacefully live his life. A close aide of Abbasi told The Hindu that the meeting went on for 35 minutes. They discussed Saeed for 10 minutes where Xi suggested Abbasi find "an early solution to keep Saeed away from limelight".

Pakistani prime minister, after the meeting, has also had a meeting with the legal team of the government and the team is expected to give a solution to this soon, as per The Hindu. Abbasi is leaving office on may 31 and the next government will likely take a call on the developments. Pakistan will go to polls for a general election in July.

On May 18, Pakistan's Punjab province government has restored the security and cited life threats as the reason to do so. "The policemen have been deployed again for the security of Hafiz Saeed on the order of (chief minister) Shahbaz Sharif's Punjab government," a senior official of the provincial government told PTI today. He said the decision was taken in the light of threats to the life of Saeed.

Last month, the Punjab government had withdrawn security deployed for the security of Saeed after the Pakistan Supreme Court ordered to take back his security escorts.

