New Delhi: Just a day after admitting that terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar is in Pakistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the Islamabad government is also in touch with the terror organization.
This alarming revelation by the Pakistan Foreign Minister was made during an interview with BBC after he was asked about why Pakistan government has failed to take any action against JeM despite the terror outfit claiming responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack, News18 reports.
Responding to the questions posed during the interview, the FM minister claimed that JeM had not said it was behind the terror attack and that “there was confusion over its role”.
The Pakistan FM maintained this statement despite the JeM terror outfit has claimed the responsibility through a statement issued by its spokesperson.
In its statement, JeM spokesperson Muhammad Hassan on the day of the attack, Feb 14, said that “dozens of forces’ vehicles were destroyed”, and identified the driver who carried out the ‘fidayeen’ attack as Aadil Ahmad Dar alias Waqas Commando of Gundi Bagh, Pulwama.
The terror group has also released a video of suicide bomber Dar, with Jaish flags in the background where he has given his reasons for the attack.
But Pakistan’s FM Qureshi has made conflicting statements despite JeM’s statement claiming the attack.
When the interviewer stressed on the conflicting reports of the two, Qureshi let it slip that the Jaish leadership was contacted and they denied responsibility.
But he revealed the government was in touch with the terror group when repeatedly asked by the interviewer.
When posed with the question to who contacted the leadership of the terror outfit, he said that “by people over here, and the people who are known to them.”
The FM has also acknowledged that Masood Azhar chief of JeM is in Pakistan on Friday, but claimed he was really unwell and not in a position to even leave his house.
In an interview with the CNN, Qureshi had said that for the Pakistani authorities to arrest Azhar, India would first have to hand over proof that is “acceptable in Pakistani courts.”
Masood Azhar’s JeM is not only behind this one Pulwama attack but is also responsible for several other attacks in India- on the Parliament House in 2001, the Pathankot air force base attack of 2016, the terror strike on army camps in Jammu and Uri in 2016, and the latest suicide attack on CRPF in Pulwama all these attacks have now escalated the tensions between the two nations.