Digvijay slams media for “lapping up” Azhar arrest story

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh today took a dig at the “gullible” Indian media for lapping up the story of Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar’s arrest by Pakistan.

“Gullible Indian media lapped it up without verifying from any official agency. Breaking news is more important than credibility for media”, he said.

“I was told by friends in media that MEA of GOI was leaking Azhar Masood arrest story. In the bargain Modi & Doval scored Brownie Points,” he said in a series of tweets.

“Who planted the story of arrest of Maulana Azhar Masood? Our agencies or Pakistani agencies?” he asked on the micro-blogging site.

The Congress general secretary’s comments came amid reports that India doubts Pakistan has taken action against anybody of consequence in Jaish-e-Mohammed, the terror group which allegedly attacked the Pathankot air base.

Officials in the Indian security establishment had said yesterday that Azhar has not been arrested nor has he been put under house arrest, while three junior JeM functionaries have been detained in cases not connected with the Pathankot terror attack.

They said initial reports of Azhar being detained for the Pathankot incident were completely false and suspected to be a propaganda by some Pakistani agencies.