PM says Indian newspaper’s report on China asking Pakistan to relocate Hafiz Saeed ‘totally false’

ISLAMABAD: Reacting to a report in an Indian newspaper, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Thursday categorically denied discussing any matter related to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed with Chinese President Xi Jinping, ARY News reported.

Speaking to a private TV channel, Abbasi said that he didn’t discuss any matter related to Hafiz Saeed with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Boao Forum as reported by the Indian newspaper.

“This is totally false, I haven’t read the news but no matter related to Hafiz Saeed came under discussion during Boao Forum,” PM Abbasi said.

Quoting a “close aide of PM Abbasi”, an Indian newspaper on Thursday said that China has asked Pakistan to explore ways of relocating Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed to a West Asian country.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested this course of action

— allowing Saeed to live a quiet life in a West Asian country — to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in China last month,” reads the story published in the newspaper.

Before PM Abbasi, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s office also contradicted the report, terming it “shocking and baseless”.

“It is shocking and baseless that’s all we can say,” the official told Indian news agency PTI.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and seniors members of his cabinet had attended the Boao conference in China last month.

The Boao conference is modeled after the World Economic Forum and is sometimes referred to as the Asian Davos.