Pak Clears Masood Of Hand In Pathankot

According to the Pakistani security officials, the special investigation team from India had set up Pakistan to prove the attack made by the former in Pathankot airbase last month found no evidence implicating the leader of the group India blamed for the assault. The Pakistani officials said the team interrogated Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his connections and found no evidence linking him with the January attack on the Pathankot that had killed seven military personnel on a single day.

The security members from the investigating team said that “We searched their homes, seminaries, hideouts and also examined their call records for the past three months and found nothing dubious.” The raid on the air base revised bilateral discussions between the nuclear-powered neighbors after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, in last December. Indian government officials claim the Jaish-e-Mohammed was behind the attack and they have provided evidence to the Pakistani government to prove it. A spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry declined to comment on the report.

In January, Pakistani authorities detained Maulana Masood Azhar and members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and shut down several religious schools run by the group. The security officials said today that Azhar remained in custody, but remained silent whether the authorities were considering his release. The investigating team has not ruled out the possibility that other members of Azhar’s group may have been involved, the officials said. Reports say that it also continued to look into groups affiliated with the United Jihad Council, an alliance of pro-Pakistan militant groups based in the Pakistani-occupied Kashmir that claimed responsibility for the assault in Pathankot. The Jaish-e-Mohammad did not claim responsibility for the attack, but praised it in a statement released a few days afterward.