No Confirmation of JeM Chief’s Detention in Pakistan

Pakistan on Wednesday said it wanted to send a special investigation team in India, to get additional information about the terrorist attack at Pathankot air base.

Also, the Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan, has also expressed its willingness to send a special investigation team to Pathankot. Pakistani authorities also carried out raids in in Gujranwala, Jhelum and Bahawalpur districts, during which an unspecified number of people were arrested, intelligence officials said. A repeat meeting in a third country is possible to analyse progress by Pakistan on the investigations linked to the Pathankot terror attack, Indian and Pakistani officials have said.

Seven Indian security personnel and four suspected gunmen were killed during the assault on the Indian air base near the Pakistan border.

Army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, Director-General ISI Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other senior officials attended the meeting.

Pakistan is delivering on its promise to cooperate with India in probing the terror attack in Pathankot with the detention of Jaish-e Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, Pakistani media pointed out minutes after the news broke this evening.

“Nawaz (Sharif) is taking an active role in getting to the bottom of the Pathankot incident”, a source in the Prime Minister’s House was quoted as saying.

After the January 2 Pathankot airbase attack, New Delhi said it had provided Islamabad with intelligence information to take action against the perpetrators who allegedly belonged to Pakistan.

News of the arrests, given in a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office, comes 48 hours before a rare meeting of foreign secretaries of the two countries is tentatively scheduled to take place. He said militants involved in this attack belong to a banned outfit and have been arrested.

“We’re encouraged by the fact that the Pakistani Government condemned the attack and said that they would investigate”, he said.

“One one side, the Defence Minister says that “pain must be inflicted on those who hurt us” but Home Minister Rajnath Singh says he completely trust Pakistan and there is no reason to distrust them”. It had demanded records of phone calls made by the terrorists to their handlers, who India claims are based in Pakistan, as well as fingerprints of the dead terrorists.

Pakistan’s unwillingness to act against anti-India militants will do more harm to Islamabad “than any enemy could wish for”, a former Pakistani diplomat said in remarks published on Monday.