ISLAMABAD: Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and “several individuals” belonging to his banned outfit, which is suspected of having links with the Pathankot attack, have been detained.
Azhar’s brother Abdul Rehman Rauf has also been arrested, media reports said. While the arrest of several individuals was announced in a press release from the Prime Minister’s Office, there was no official word on Azhar’s detention. Reports said Azhar, who was released from an Indian prison in 1999 in exchange for release of 155 passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane, has been taken into protective custody after raids on several JeM offices.
Pakistan has said it’s considering sending a special investigation team to Pathankot as more information would be required to carry forward the process of cooperation with India. The Pakistani action, which was reviewed at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, come as the fate of the foreign secretary-level talks scheduled for Friday hung in balance with just two days for Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to go to Islamabad for talks with his counterpart on resuming the bilateral dialogue process.
In a statement, the Prime Minister’s House confirmed the arrests of several members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad. A Reuters report later cited unnamed Pakistani officials as saying that Masood Azhar was among those arrested along with his brother and brother-in-law. The Pathankot airbase attack was claimed by separatist group United Jihad Council, an alliance of Kashmiri militants.
The statement was issued after a high-level meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss the country’s security situation. “The meeting expressed national resolve not to allow our territory to be used for acts of terrorism anywhere,” the statement said. It was also noted that “considerable progress” has been made in the investigations, being carried out against terrorist elements reportedly linked to the Pathankot incident.
“In the spirit of the cooperative approach, it was also decided that in order to carry the process forward, additional information would be required, for which the government of Pakistan is considering to send a special investigation team to Pathankot, in consultation with the Government of India.”
DAILY TIMES.
YEMI.
0 comments:
Post a Comment