India should pressurise Pak for Dawood's handover: Athawale

"Until now, Pakistan had never admitted that it has been sheltering him for so many years," he added "I am going to write a letter to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs about it.

Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Sunday said the Centre should exert pressure on the Pakistan government for the extradition of wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim to India. Athawale said that criminals like Ibrahim "deserve to be hanged".

"The Indian government should pressurize the Pakistan government for handing over of Dawood Ibrahim as he was the mastermind behind the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice said in a statement. "Until now, Pakistan had never admitted that it has been sheltering him for so many years," he added "I am going to write a letter to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs about it. Criminals like Dawood deserve to be hanged," he said.

Pakistan had on Friday imposed tough financial sanctions on 88 banned terror groups and their leaders, including Dawood Ibrahim, 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind, and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar.