Pakistani law enforcement agencies have picked up “some suspects” connected to the Pathankot airbase attack from Bahwalapur district, the hometown of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar. However, the crackdown is viewed as “cosmetic” since Masood Azhar or his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar, who are among four persons identified by Indian Intelligence agencies as the “brains” behind the Pathankot attack, have not been touched.
The limited crackdown is seen as an obvious attempt to humour the US and China, which have asked Pakistan to act against the terror masterminds. India remains skeptical to Pakistan’s move and is closely monitoring the developments. After news reports from Pakistan claimed that a few arrests have been made based on inputs from India, top sources in New Delhi said that National Investigation Agency (NIA) will take a call whether there is a significant or cosmetic action by Pakistani authorities.
“The Intelligence agencies have picked up some suspects from Bahawalpur on the leads provided by India in the Pathankot airbase attack and shifted them to undisclosed location for interrogation,” reported Pakistani news channel ARY News.
However, Regional Police Officer (RPO Bahawalpur) Ahsan Saddique said that
he was not aware of any arrest in connection with the Pathankot attack. “I am not aware of any arrests related to the Pathankot incident… No raid has been conducted in the seminary related to the Pathankot incident.”
Azhar’s seminary Usman-au-Ali in Bahawalpur, some 400 km from lahore, is fully functional and of late a number of students have reportedly increased from 400 to 700 with the extension in the building. The JeM was banned in 2002. However, it continued to operate under an alternative name ‘Jamaat-ul-Furqaan’.
With the Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan still three days away, India is closely monitoring the developments and Pakistan’s response to the terror attacks. India has given Pakistan some initial leads and evidence relating to the handlers of the militants who carried out the attack in Pathankot. The evidence includes voice recordings, GPS positioning, and cellphone numbers of the attackers’ handlers, which were allegedly traced to Pakistan.
Though there are news reports claiming Pakistan has said the evidence given to it by India are not strong enough, sources said that India is sending a letter Rogatory seeking Pakistan’s assistance in investigations in the case.
In Islamabad, Intelligence officials claimed raids were carried out in Gujranwala, Jhelum and Bahawalpur districts and an unspecified number of people were arrested.
“Probe has been going to ascertain if they were involved in the attack or some of them facilitated it,” they said.
Sharif’s decision to form the joint investigation team (JIT) came after India provided the leads and set condition for Foreign Secretary-level talks, scheduled for January 15, to Islamabad’s decisive action on the terror attack.
The decision to form the JIT, comprising officials from Intelligence Bureau (IB), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Sharif recently.
A report in the The News said that Pakistan has completed initial investigation on the terror attack and handed over its report to Indian authorities. There was no official word on this from the Indian side. The paper, quoting Pakistani authorities, claimed that the telephone numbers provided by India were not registered in Pakistan.
Adviser to the Pakistan PM on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said the FS-level talks are “intact” as “Pakistan is investigating the Pathankot incident”.