However, MEA says it has no official confirmation from Pakistan authorities
New Delhi : Even as India on Wednesday night said it has received no official confirmation of the detention of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar, media reports emanating from Pakistan suggested that Azhar, his brother Mufti Abdul Rauf and other close aides have been taken into “protective custody” in connection with the attack on the Pathankot airbase. They had been shifted to an unknown location and were being interrogated.
The Karachi-based Geo TV broke the story: in no time it became the top story in The Nation and The News International. Pakistan is delivering on its promise to cooperate with India in probing the attack, the pro-establishment media pointed out minutes after the news broke. The much touted arrests had taken place two days before the scheduled India-Pakistan talks, which have been in the lurch owing to lack of action on the ground. In fact, just two days are left for Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to leave for Islamabad.
Lt Gen (Retired) Abdul Qadir Baloch, the minister for Frontier Rregions, confirmed late in the evening that “Azhar has been indeed arrested”. However, a PMO statement in Islamabad merely said: “Based on initial investigations in Pakistan, and the information provided, several individuals belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad have been apprehended. The offices of the organisation are also being sealed. Further investigations are underway,” the statement said.
However, the Indian High Commission in Islamabad was not able to get confirmation of the detentions or the names of those being held captive for interrogation.
The PMO statement noted with satisfaction that the action had been taken in view of Pakistan’s commitment to eliminate terrorism from its soil and the expressed national resolve not to allow the territory to be used for acts of terrorism anywhere. It said “considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements reportedly linked to the Pathankot incident.
Media reports also said that Islamabad is considering sending a team to investigate the Pathankot attack in what many saw was as an attempt to salvage the foreign-secretary talks. India had identified Rauf, brother of the JeM chief, as the mastermind of the attack: he had allegedly guided the terrorists on phone, intercepts of which were provided to Islamabad for action.
Years ago, Pakistan refused to hand over Azhar to India after he was named as the prime suspect in the 2001 attack on Parliament. He has since been confined to his home in Bhawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Indian intelligence officials pointed out renewed activity by him in 2014, when he addressed a large public rally via phone. Azhar was arrested in Kashmir in 1994 while travelling on a forged Portuguese passport. India had, however, freed him and two other jailed Pakistani terrorists in 1999 in return for 155 passengers held hostage in an Indian Airlines aircraft that was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan.
Joint probe team set up
Islamabad : Pakistan has also set up a Joint Investigation Team comprising security and military officials to probe whether any Pakistani individual or organisation was involved in the terror attack. The JIT was set up following an order of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to ensure a thorough and fair probe by Pakistan. According to an official of the Prime Minister’s Office, the JIT would be led by Additional IG Counter Terrorism Department, Punjab, Rai Tahir.
