Despite India giving strong evidences such as the Pakistani sim card from which the calls were made, shoe marks which showed boots manufactured in a Pakistan shoe company and the use of Army fatigues which is one of the attributes of the JeM style of attacking, Pakistan has blatantly said that there is no proof to nail Masood Azhar.
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A special investigation team set up by Pakistan to probe the Pathankot airbase attack last month found no evidence implicating Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, Pakistani security officials said on Monday.
A 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, which India also blamed on Jaish-e-Mohammad, almost led to a war between the nations.
According to The Express Tribune, six gunmen attacked the airbase in Pathankot on January 2, leading to a three-day-long standoff that killed seven soldiers.
But today, the team concluded that there was no substantive evidence to suggest that Maulana Masood Azhar was the mastermind behind the assault.
The report was based on the findings of the team constituted by Pakistan to probe the attacks. Initially, reports came that Pakistan held him in “protective custody”, detained several JeM members and sealed their office.
Indian government officials claim the Jaish-e-Mohammed was behind the attack and that they have provided evidence to the Pakistani government to prove it. The SIT had sought further information from India which it refused to share.
On its part Janjua has conveyed to his Indian counterpart that Pakistan was ready to welcome Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar before or after the SIT visit, sources said.
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While many in India believe that talks and terror can’t go together and India must not engage Pakistan in any bilateral peace process, some others believe that “dialogue” is the only tool to resolve all disputes between the two countries, including the cross-border terrorism.
