NEW DELHI, Jan 11:
The Indo-Pak Foreign Secretary-level talks appear to be unlikely this week with India taking the stand that Pakistan has to act on the leads given to it about the terror attack on the Pakistan air base.
Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Policy Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister, has said that the Foreign secretary talks would be held on January 15 but National Security Adviser Ajit Doval was quoted as having said that talks can be held only after action, a stand from which he has distanced himself later.
Reports from Pakistan today claimed that law enforcement agencies have picked up “some suspects” connected to Pathankot airbase attack from Bahwalpur district, the hometown of Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Pakistani news channel ARY News reported today that “some arrests” have been made in this regard but police did not confirm any arrest related to the Pathankot attack. However, there is nothing officially been said about it.
It is unlikely that Foreign Secretary Jaishankar would travel to Islamabad as planned this Thursday for talks with his Pakistan counterpart for the comprehensive bilateral dialogue agreed to between the two countries when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan last month.
Swaraj today went to Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence and is understood to have discussed the issue during a meeting that lasted about 20 minutes. But there was no official word on the meeting.
The arrests led Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to order a Joint Investigation Team of IB, Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Federal Investigation Agency and Police to thoroughly probe the Pathankot attack links to Pakistan.
Sharif has already said that a transparent investigation will be made and those involved will not be spared.
India has provided telephone number in Pakistan contacted by the airbase attackers and given other inputs while asking Islamabad to take punitive actions against the handlers and possible mastermind. (PTI)
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