JeM chief Masood Azhar held, shifted to undisclosed location

Bawahalpur is said to be the hometown of Masood Azhar, the founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammed that India believes orchestrated the attack on the Pathankot airbase.

The civil and military leadership of Pakistan have already pledged their commitment to cooperate with India on the attack, and mulled over strategy and mechanism of cooperation with the neighbouring country. The investigation is being conducted on alleged Pakistani links to the Pathankot terror attack, according to media reports.

India has no reason to distrust Pakistan’s assurance that it will take effective action on inputs given about the perpetrators of the Pathankot terror attack, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today.

The statement gives no names or the number of Jaish-e-Mohammad men arrested, or any details of how they were linked to the Pathankot attack, so it is hard to say how serious a move it is, says the BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad.

The three JeM offices sealed included those at Hiran Wala Kalan, Ugoki (a suburban town of Sialkot district) and a village named Kot Waris.

The Foreign-Secretary Level talks between India and Pakistan is likely to be delayed indefinitely.

The sources further said that the concerned authorities were interrogating them over the armed attack on Pathankot airbase. The meeting was attended by the Chief Minister of Punjab in Pakistan, Cops & Commander Lahore, Director Generals and other senior officials.

Sharif’s statement also said that Pakistan was considering sending a special team to Pathankot to seek “additional information” to spur the investigation, adding the decision was being made in consultation with the Indian government.

Islamabad, which India has long accused of backing Islamist militant attacks, promised to get to the bottom of who was behind the assault on the air base after India handed evidence to Pakistan that it said implicated Jaish-e-Mohammad.

New Delhi also submitted telephone numbers the attackers called up.

The development comes just two days ahead of a meeting between foreign secretaries of two countries, who will lay down a road map of resumption of comprehensive dialogue between Pakistan and India in Islamabad on January 15.