No requests from Kasab`s family to bring his body back: Pakistan

The Pakistan government has not received any request from the family of Ajmal Kasab to bring back his body following his execution in India.

Islamabad: The Pakistan government has not received any request from the family of the Mumbai attacks terrorist Ajmal Kasab to bring back his body following his execution in India last month, a senior official said on Friday.

Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Palwasha Khan told the National Assembly or Lower House of Parliament this afternoon that the government has not received any application from Kasab`s family to bring back the body. Kasab, the lone surviving member of a group of 10 Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists that attacked Mumbai in November 2008, was hanged in a Pune jail last month. His body was buried within the prison after the execution. The Pakistan government had earlier acknowledged that Kasab was its national and that the conspiracy behind the Mumbai attacks was hatched in the country. Parliamentary Secretary Khan, who was speaking during question hour, said in response to a supplementary query that Pakistan had released 783 Indian prisoners, including fishermen, since January. She contended that the government faced a "lot of problems" in the release of Pakistani prisoners from India and that the matter had been taken up with Indian authorities at every forum. A total of 8,715 Pakistanis were in prisons abroad, including 2,373 in Saudi Arabia, 1,334 in UAE, 1,416 in UK, 403 in India, 350 in Afghanistan and 99 in the US. The government had taken several steps for their release, including the transfer of prisoners under bilateral agreements, she said. In response to another question, Khan told the House that no proposal was being considered to purchase the residential building in London of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. The property is owned by a private individual and the government could not force him to sell it, she said. PTI