China on Thursday dismissed as “shocking” and “baseless” a media report that President Xi Jinping has asked Pakistan to relocate the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed to a West Asian country, amid mounting international pressure on Islamabad to act against him.
According to the report, a close aide of the Prime Minister of Pakistan said that Xi made the suggestion to Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during their meeting on the sidelines of the Boao Forum in China last month.
“At a 35-minute meeting, at least 10 minutes of the discussion dealt with Saeed. The Chinese President was keen on pressing the Prime Minister to find an early solution to keep Saeed away from the limelight,” an unnamed close aide of Abbasi was quoted as saying. Reacting to it, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s office said on Thursday the report was “shocking and baseless”. “It is shocking and baseless that’s all we can say,” the official from the spokesperson’s office told PTI here, declining to comment further on the report. Considering the close relations enjoyed between China and Pakistan, there is sense of disquiet here over the report in the backdrop of the current tussle between the Pakistan government headed by Pakistan Muslim league-N (PMl-N) and the powerful military.