Pathankot: Pakistan says JeM chief had no role in attack

Pakistani investigators have concluded that Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar has no role in the last month’s terror attack on an Indian airbase in Pathankot, media reports said.

“A team constituted by Pakistan to investigate the last month’s deadly attack on an Indian airbase has concluded that there is no substantive evidence to suggest Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of the outlawed JeM, ordered or masterminded the assault,” reported a Pakistani newspaper, adding the findings had been shared with India.

Pakistan authorities held Maulana Masood Azhar in “protective custody” soon after the January 2 Pathankot incident. Several other suspects were arrested and authorities closed down a number of JeM-run madrasas (seminaries) in different cities.

Officials said Maulana Azhar, who was released from an Indian prison in 1999 in exchange for the release of 155 passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane, was quizzed by the investigators. The JeM chief’s brother Mufti Abdul Rehman Rauf is also detained. Pakistan is likely to send a special investigating team to Pathankot in consultation with the government of India for further investigations.

On January 2, a heavily-armed group attacked the Pathankot Air Force station, part of the Western Air Command of the Indian Air Force. Five attackers and seven security forces personnel were killed in the battle. Indian believed the attackers, who were wearing Indian army fatigues, belonged to JeM.

Following the attacks, the Indian and Pakistani governments both agreed to postpone scheduled diplomatic talks until the end of January.

The Express Tribune reported that Pakistani authorities had conveyed to New Delhi that there was no substantial evidence which could prove the involvement of Maulana Masood Azhar in the Pathankot attack.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who held two important meetings with the military leadership last week along with his national security adviser Nasser Khan Janjua, had given the go-ahead for sharing the SIT findings with India, according to credible sources.

Accordingly, Mr Janjua contacted his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval to update him on the SIT probe and to work out possible dates for talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries.

Pakistan has already submitted an initial report to India regarding the Pathankot terror attack.

The telephone numbers allegedly used by the attackers — according to the report — were not registered and could not be traced to Pakistan.

An official said investigators were still working on the Indian leads to find out if at all Pakistan’s soil was used in the plot.