Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Wednesday confirmed in a statement the arrests of several members of the Jaish-i-Mohammad militant group, which India suspects of being behind a terrorist attack earlier this month on an Indian air base.
“The offices of the group were being traced and sealed,” the statement said.
PMO also said the government wants to send a team of special investigators to the Pathankot air base in India for further investigation.
India had claimed that 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-offensive.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had assured Narendra Modi in a telephonic conversation that Islamabad will 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.
Today’s statement was released after Prime Minister Nawaz 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 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.
The development also comes 48 hours before a rare meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries is tentatively scheduled to take place.
