Confusion: Not aware of JeM chief’s arrest, says FO

Khalilullah’s Indian counterpart Vikas Swarup too denied knowledge of Maulana Azhar’s arrest


Our Correspondent/Aditi Phadnis January 14, 2016
PHOTO: AFP

NEW DELHI/ ISLAMABAD:


Despite reports that the government had detained Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, the Foreign Office spokesperson Thursday said that he was unaware of any such arrest.


“I said that I was not aware of the arrest [of the JeM leader],” Khalilullah said during the weekly briefing at the Foreign Office.

On the other hand, Khalilullah’s Indian counterpart Vikas Swarup too denied knowledge of Maulana Azhar’s arrest even as he welcomed Pakistan’s action against JeM.

“We welcome the statement issued by the government of Pakistan yesterday (Wednesday) on the investigations into the Pathankot terrorist attack,” Swarup told reporters. “The statement conveys that considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements linked to the Pathankot incident.”

He, however, delinked the Foreign Secretary talks from the reported arrest of any particular JeM leader but maintained that action on intelligence provided by India was expected.

Maulana Azhar, a hardliner who was blamed for a 2001 attack on India’s parliament, was detained earlier this week along with his brother and brother-in-law and is expected to remain in protective custody for at least 30 days, a senior intelligence official said. The detention was also confirmed by Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah during a television interview on Thursday where he said that the counter-Terrorism department had taken the JeM chief into protective custody.

News of his detention came the same day PM Nawaz Sharif announced that several people affiliated with JeM had been detained and that offices of the group were being sealed as it probes Indian assertions that the Pathankot attacks were linked to Pakistan.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2016.

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