There are “formidable cases” for Pakistan to extradite underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to India for trial, senior BJP leader L K Advani said on Saturday.

Welcoming Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s recent statement that his country would consider deporting Dawood Ibrahim if New Delhi provides “authentic proof”, the BJP leader said it was first time that Islamabad had officially admitted that the notorious gangster was taking shelter in their country.

“The Interpol has declared Dawood Ibrahim as an absconder and United States declared him as an international terrorist.

The Indian courts have also declared him as absconder. These are formidable cases for Pakistan government to carry out its promise and hand him over to India for trial,” Advani told reporters here.

Accusing the UPA government of failing to check terrorism, he said none of the perpetrators of terror strikes during the last four years had been brought to book and not a single case had been fully investigated.

“Weak approach’

“The UPA government’s weak approach to fighting terrorism is guided solely by vote-bank considerations. For its short-term electoral gains, the Congress is making India pay a very heavy price in the form of blood of innocent citizens,” he said. Advani, who made a transit halt here on his way to Karnataka on an election campaign, criticised the Centre for failing to check large scale illegal infiltration from Bangladesh.

“It is no wonder that the hand of Harkat-ul-Jehad Islami, based in Bangladesh, is seen in most of the terrorist attacks during the last four years,” Advani said.