Punjab crackdown: Eight Jaish activists detained

FAISALABAD:

The Punjab police have detained eight more suspected activists of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group, which India claims was behind the January 2 brazen attack on the Pathankot air base.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) raided a seminary in the Razaabad area of Faisalabad Friday night over its alleged links with the JeM and sealed the premises. The CTD also detained eight suspected JeM activists and shifted them to an undisclosed location for questioning.



Sources said those taken into custody included JeM’s regional chief Muhammad Hassan, alias Abu Jandal. The identities of the other suspects have yet to be confirmed.

Earlier in the week, the CTD had detained 14 people besides confiscating computers, motorcycles, commando uniforms and militancy literature from a seminary run by the JeM in a Sialkot village. The seminary was sealed.

JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar have also been placed under ‘protective custody’ by a special team of security agencies after they were picked up from Bahawalpur.

The crackdown against the JeM top leadership and its seminaries in Punjab has been launched following the Pathankot air base attack. The Indian government has alleged the group was behind the assault, which left six attackers and seven Indian soldiers dead.



Rising tensions between Pakistan and India have already resulted in postponement of the foreign secretary-level talks, which were due on January 15.

The arrests are being seen as an attempt to salvage the fledgling peace process between the two hyphenated neighbours.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2016.