PMO also said the government wants to send a team of special investigators to the Pathankot air base in India for further investigation.
Advertisement
Pakistan-based news channel Geo News has said that local authorities have detained Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar. He also said, “Pakistan leadership especially Nawaz Sharif deserves benefit of doubt for a few weeks and if he walks the talk consistently in future he would go down as a statesman”.
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) allegedly carried out a string of deadly attacks against Indian targets, including the attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a full-scale war.
“The meeting reiterated that in line with our decision to counter and completely eliminate terrorism, Pakistan would remain engaged with India on this issue”, Sharif’s statement said.
The sources said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) approached Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the nodal agency for Interpol in India, for issuance of notices to member countries in tracing the origin and the country they belonged to by claiming their bodies.
The meeting, which took place at the PM’s residence, was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and other senior officials.
The civil and military leadership of Pakistan have already pledged their commitment to cooperate with India on the attack, and mulled over strategy and mechanism of cooperation with the neighbouring country.
A couple of days ago, Pakistan had rounded up several suspects from South Punjab after receiving evidence and “important” leads from the Indian government.
But the attack raised concerns over peace talks planned for Friday between the two longtime regional rivals.
Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, “It is the usual game being played by Pakistan of detaining some people, arresting them and then releasing them and later letting them off. It had also happened after the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes”.
For the group of militants, which carried out the attack on Pathankot Air Force base, it would not have been possible to cross the worldwide border, hijack vehicles, jump a 10-feet high boundary wall around the airbase while carrying all arms and ammunition.
Advertisement
After the attack, India had said it has provided to Pakistan actionable intelligence to act upon the perpetrators of the terrorist act. Pakistan has already submitted to India its initial findings on alleged Pakistani links to the Pathankot terror attack saying that the telephone numbers given by India were not registered in Pakistan.
