Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar was on Wednesday detained in connection thePathankot terror attack, reported Pakistan Media.
Media reports suggest that Masood Azhar was also taken into protective custody and was being questioned.
Geo English re-tweeted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as saying, “Jaish-e-Mohammad offices being traced, sealed.”
“Pakistan to send a team of special investigators to the Pathankot airbase,” tweeted Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office earlier.
The Pakistan Government on Wednesday said it had arrested several members of the Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group, which is suspected of being behind the Pathankot Air Base attack earlier this month.
The Pakistan PMO in a statement said the government had made “considerable progress” in investigating the attack, and it wanted to send a team of special investigators to the Pathankot Air Base.
“Based on the initial investigations in Pakistan, and the information provided, several individuals belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad have been apprehended,” the office of Prime Minister Sharif said.
“The offices of the organisation are also being traced and sealed. Further investigations are underway,” it said.
News of the arrests comes 48 hours before a rare meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries is tentatively scheduled to take place.
The statement was released after Prime Minister Sharif chaired a high-level civil-military meeting in Islamabad to discuss the regional security situation and the investigation into the Pathankot airbase terrorist attack.
The meeting was attended by attended by top civilian and military leaders, including Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, Director-General (DG) Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, PM’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, and other senior officials.
India had claimed that Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists based in Pakistan were responsible for the attack on January 2 which left seven Indian security personnel dead. All six terrorists were killed in the counter.
In a telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart following the attack, Prime Minister Sharif had assured Narendra Modi that Islamabad would not hesitate to take “prompt and decisive action” if the involvement of Pakistan-based elements in the attack on the Indian airbase was proved beyond doubt.
The developments today came amid renewed efforts by Islamabad to ease diplomatic tensions with India.
The high-level huddle also follows two separate terrorist attacks earlier on Wednesday-a suicide bombing near the Pakistani consulate in the Afghan border city of Jalalabad, and a separate suicide blast in Quetta targeting policemen guarding a team of polio vaccination workers. (ANI)