Maulana Masood Azhar In ‘Protective Custody’, Says Pakistan Minister

Confirming this report, Pakistan’s Punjab province law minister Rana Sanaullah said that banned Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar has been taken into “protective custody” along with his accomplices. “We are looking for credible and comprehensive action from them to bring all the perpetrators of Pathankot terror attack to justice”, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said on Thursday.

However, despite media reports quoting several police and intelligence officials on the “protective detention” and questioning of JeM founder Masood Azhar, there was no confirmation from the Pakistani government of this, the MEA said.

To another question, he said the Afghan government has been asked to investigate terror attack in Jalalabad, and share its results with Pakistan.

Pakistan and India on Thursday agreed to reschedule foreign-secretary level talks for a date in a “very near future”.

The comments came a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif constituted a committee to probe into the allegations of the alleged involvement of certain individuals in Pathankot incident in India, an official announcement has said.

“The action against members of Jaish-e-Mohammed is a positive step”.

After the terror attack on January 2, there have been doubts whether the FS-level talks could take place as planned with India linking “prompt and decisive” action by Pakistan to the taks.

Swarup also said they had no information about Azhar’s arrest. Foreign secretary-level talks had earlier been scheduled for Friday. He added that the decision to reschedule the talks had been made mutually, and was not a unilateral decision by India. “I don’t have anything else apart from the statement issued by the Prime Minister Office”. Meanwhile, Islamabad is said to be planning to set up a team for Pathankot attack’s probe in an attempt to pacify with India.

On Wednesday, Pakistani security institutions conducted operations in four various cities of Punjab and arrested several members of Jaish-e-Muhammad and sealed its offices.