Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif refused to respond when confronted by reporters outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday over the continued freedom of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed.
He was seen walking away as journalists pressed him on why Islamabad has not prosecuted him for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
"When will you prosecute Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed?" ANI reporter asked Sharif as he exited the UN building, according to visuals shared by the news agency ANI.
The prime minister did not answer and proceeded to his vehicle amid a scrum of reporters and security personnel.
Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and chief of its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), is accused by India of masterminding the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which 10 gunmen killed 166 people over three days.
He was designated a global terrorist by the UN Security Council's 1267 Sanctions Committee in December 2008 and carries a USD 10 million American bounty.
Despite the designation, Saeed has largely operated in Pakistan without facing charges tied directly to the Mumbai attacks.
He is currently serving a 78-year prison sentence, handed down in February 2020, but the conviction relates to separate terror-financing cases rather than the 2008 attack itself.
India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of shielding Saeed and using token financing convictions to deflect international pressure while avoiding prosecution for the attack.
The exchange comes as Sharif leads Pakistan's delegation to the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, where he is scheduled to address world leaders on Thursday.
Confrontations over Saeed's status have become a recurring feature of high-level Pakistani visits abroad, with Indian officials and journalists routinely raising the issue at UN sessions and other international forums.
The episode follows years of diplomatic friction between the two countries over cross-border terrorism, with India maintaining that Pakistan has failed to act against banned groups operating from its soil despite international commitments, including obligations under the Financial Action Task Force framework that Islamabad exited its grey list to meet in 2022.
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