Chief of JeM Masood Arrestd at last, But Pak PMO not confirmed it

Chief of JeM Masood Arrestd at last

But Pak PMO not confirmed it

Islamabad:  Pakistan today detained "several individuals" belonging to JeM, reportedly including The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) Chief  Masood Azhar and his brother , on Wednesday, 13^th January 2016, after eleven days Pakistani Terrorists attacked Pathankot Air base of Punjab in India.

JeM is is suspected to have engineered the Pathankot terror attack, and Pakistan  sealed its offices after India linked Islamabad's "prompt and decisive" action to the fate of Foreign Secretary-level talks scheduled on Friday.

Pakistan Prime Minister’s office is also considering sending a special investigation team to Pathankot as more information would be required to carry forward the process of cooperation with India. Press release issued by PMO said several individuals of JeM are arrested and several offices of organisation were seized. But the statement is silent regarding the arrest of Azhar and his brother.

The Pakistani action, which was reviewed at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, come as the fate of the FS-level talks hung in balance with just two days for Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to go to Islamabad for talks with his counterpart on resuming the bilateral dialogue process.

According to Pak Media Paksitan had detained terrorist leader Maulana Masood Azhar who India says plotted the mayhem. The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief, known for his close ties with Pakistani intelligence agencies, was taken to an undisclosed destination and was questioned as part of a crackdown, media reports said.

Also detained were his brother Mufti Abdul Rauf and brother-in-law Ashfaq Ahmad as well as some 10 others, the reports said.

Masood Azhar and two other Pakistani terrorists were freed by India in December 1999 in exchange for the passengers of an Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

The hijacking, from Kathmandu, was masterminded by a brother of Masood Azhar. Once the three terrorists were handed over to the hijackers in the Taliban-controlled Kandahar, they fled to Pakistan.

According to Dawn.com a Reuters report cited unnamed Pakistani officials as saying head of the Jaish-i-Mohammad group, Masood Azhar, was among those arrested along with his brother and brother-in-law. This could not be independently verified by Dawn.com, it added.