NEW DELHI: Even as Pakistan media reported the detention of Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar, India said that it could not confirm the ‘mastermind’ of the terror attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot – with a final call on foreign secretary S Jaishankar travelling to Islamabad deferred till the arrival of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday afternoon.
This also gives India enough time to evaluate the steps taken by Pakistan on the Pathankot investigations, including whether the detention of Masood Azhar is enough. It will also allow space to frame a suitable response to Pakistan’s suggestion to send a special investigation team to Pathankot.
A series of high-level meetings began immediately after foreign secretary Jaishankar landed in Delhi from Colombo on Wednesday evening. After his special flight arrived at the airport, he immediately dove into a long meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at her residence, along with senior MEA officials.
Thereafter, Swaraj went to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence late on Wednesday night. The meeting went for two hours till 11 pm.
However, despite earlier expectation that MEA will make an announcement tonight, sources said that the final decision will be taken after NSA Doval returns from his Paris trip at around 1.30 pm on Thursday. An indication that it will not be an easy decision for India was made clear by the MEA spokesperson’s pointed statement even as Swaraj began her meeting with the PM. Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said that India had not got any confirmation about the arrest of Maulana Masood Azhar, who has been termed the mastermind of the Pathankot attack by Indian security agencies.
Pakistan Federal Minister of State Lt General Qadir Baloch said on TV channel Geo News that Masood Azhar had been taken into “protective custody” and not arrested, as there were no charges against him yet. It is not clear how long Azhar will be detained and whether he can be grilled during this “protective custody”. This is not the first time that Azhar has been arrested. He was detained for an year after the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and released without any charges on the intervention of Lahore high court in December 2002.
He had thereafter resurfaced in 2014 to announce the revival of a new platform for jihad in Kashmir, along with Jamaat ud Daawa leader Hafez Saeed. Incidentally, Saeed had been also under house arrest after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, but was let off after judicial intervention. Not surprisingly, past history makes India nervous about taking assertions about action against JeM chief at face value. Even the ruling political party was rather careful in their comments.
“If the media reports (about Masood Azhar’s arrest) are correct, it is a positive step,” said BJP spokesperson Shrikant Sharma. Pakistan had proposed January 15 for the foreign secretaries to meet and draw up the six-month schedule for the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue, restarting the peace process in a new avatar as a result of the thaw of the last one and half months following the chat between Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Paris in November.
The dramatic turnaround in relations peaked when Modi dropped in Lahore, en route from Kabul to Delhi - marking the first of an Indian PM to Pakistan in over a decade. Just a week later, terrorists strike at Indian air force base in Pathankot.
It led to India not confirming the Indian foreign secretary’s travel plans to Pakistan, as it hoped to get Nawaz Sharif to show some tangible results to assuage Indian public opinion.
Using the Bangkok ‘breakthrough’, Doval was directly in touch with his Pakistani counterpart Nasir Janjua and passed “actionable” input about perpetrators, including phone transcripts and DNA.
With Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif assuring Modi of “prompt action”, the NDA government gave some space to Sharif to allow him to show some alacrity to save the foreign secretary-level talks. In between, US secretary of State John Kerry also leaned on Pakistan, speaking directly to Sharif.
While there had been reports of arrests by Pakistan after raids at JeM offices for last two days, it was formally announced by Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office after a high-level meeting on Wednesday morning. It was attended by Pakistan Army chief Raheel Sharif, heads of ISI and Intelligence Bureau, and federal ministers.
The press note said that “considerable progress” was made in the “investigations being carried out against terrorist elements reportedly linked to the Pathankot incident”. “Based on the initial investigations in Pakistan, and the information provided, several individuals belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad have been apprehended. The offices of the organization are also being traced and sealed. Further investigations are underway,” said the press release from Pakistan PM’s office
At the same time, Pakistan government said that “in the spirit of the cooperative approach” and to move the investigation forward, it is “considering to send a Special Investigation Team to Pathankot, in consultation with the Government of India”.
“The meeting reiterated that in line with our decision to counter and completely eliminate terrorism, Pakistan would remain engaged with India on this issue,” it added.
It remains to be seen that India will be very happy to have a Pakistani security officials visiting a major defence installation - so it is likely a non-starter.
Later in the night, Pakistan PM announced formation of a six-member team to investigate the Pathankot terror attack.
It will be led by a senior official of the Pakistan Punjab’s counter terrorism deparment and will include officials from various investigation and intelligence agencies, including ISI and Military Intelligence.