No official confirmation on arrest of JeM chief Masood Azhar, says India
New Delhi: India will take a call on going ahead with the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan after tonight's meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
"The decision (on FS talks) will be taken after the meeting," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup told reporters tonight after Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met Swaraj.
The hectic consultations followed the detention of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar and "several individuals" of his terror outfit suspected to be behind the Pathankot attack on January 2.
However, Swarup said there has been no official confirmation of the "arrest" of Azhar.
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Pakistan reportedly detained Maulana Masood Azhar, the terror group suspected to have engineered the Pathankot Air Force base earlier this month, in which seven military personnel were martyred.
Azhar and four of his top aides, including his brother Rehman Rauf, have been taken into preventive custody in Islamabad and questioning is underway in connection with Pathankot terror attack.
“Maulana Masood Azhar and Mufti Abdul Rauf have been taken into protective custody in connection with the attack on Pathankot airbase. They have been shifted to a safe place for interrogations,” a senior government official said.
Last week India put the ball squarely in Pakistan's court, linking the FS-level talks to Islamabad's "prompt and decisive" action in the Pathankot terror attack for which it has provided "actionable intelligence".
Last week, Narendra Modi had asked his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif for prompt and decisive action on the basis of specific evidence.
Sharif had set up a committee of his top intelligence, army and government officers to investigate India's allegations.
