The government took serious note of comments made by Pakistani Punjab State law minister Rana Sanaullah, saying that his admission that the Pakistani state “is involved” with terror groups Jaish-e-Mohammad and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, vindicates India’s stand.
“If the Minister indeed said so, it sadly corroborates the view that we have always held about the support and freedom available to anti-India terrorist groups in Pakistan, including internationally sanctioned terrorist groups and individuals,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup told reporters.
In an interview to BBC Urdu , the minister said that groups like the JuD and JeM “could no longer carry out any activity” as they had been banned by the Pakistani government. However, when pressed about whether the groups were being prosecuted as India has demanded, Mr. Sanaullah said, “How can you prosecute a group whom the state itself has been involved with?”
The minister’s remarks came a day after Interpol had issued Red notices against JeM chief Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf, both believed to have masterminded the Pathankot attack. Despite announcing that Masood Azhar had been taken into “protective custody” in January, the government in Pakistan has provided no evidence of action taken against the Jaish e Mohammad for the attacks, or a case being filed.
“[Mr. Sanaullah’s] remarks elucidate the reason for lack of effective action even against those entities and individuals against whom Pakistan has international obligation to act. It is upto authorities in Pakistan to address this unfortunate reality in the interest of a normal relationship between our two countries and in broader interest of Pakistan itself,” Mr. Swarup said in his statement on Friday.
Adding to the controversy is the fact that Rana Sanaullah is himself seen as a sympathiser of extremist groups in Punjab, where both the JuD and the JeM are headquartered in Muridke and Bahawalpur respectively without any seeming interference from the law. Mr. Sanaullah has publicly defended both Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar from terror charges in the past, and admitted to funding the groups from the state exchequer in 2013. He later clarified that the funds had gone towards the upkeep of educational institutions run by the JuD, that had been confiscated when the group came under a UN ban.
Interestingly, the minister’s remarks also drew fire in Pakistan from Hafiz Saeed’s own group. “Rana is deliberately creating confusion in order to support a concocted agenda,” a JuD spokesman was reported as saying to Pakistani papers.
