Terror crackdown? Pak arrests Jaish members, seals offices after Pathankot attack

Islamabad: Pakistan said on Wednesday it had arrested several Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) activists and sealed its offices as part of a crackdown following the terror attack on an IAF base in India. India has blamed the JeM, a terrorist group which is known to have links with the Pakistani security establishment, for the 2 January attack on the Indian Air Force station at Pathankot in Punjab. An official statement also said that Islamabad needed more information from New Delhi on the alleged Pakistani links to the pre-dawn attack which left seven Indian security personnel dead. Pakistan was considering sending a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to Pathankot in consultation with India, it added. [caption id=“attachment_2582512” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Security forces in Pathankot. AFP[/caption] The statement said “several individuals belonging to JeM have been apprehended. The offices of the organisation are also being traced and sealed. Further investigations are underway”. The announcement followed a high-level meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired here on Wednesday to review the progress in the investigation against alleged Pakistani masterminds of the terror attack. India says that all six terrorists who raided the IAF base and got killed were Pakistanis and were allied to the JeM. The Wednesday meeting was also attended by army chief General Raheel Sharif and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar. The statement said considerable progress had been made in the probe 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 JeM have been apprehended. The offices of the organisation are also being traced and sealed. “In the spirit of the cooperative approach, it was also decided that in order to carry the process forward, additional information would be required, for which the government of Pakistan is considering to send a SIT to Pathankot, in consultation with the government of India.” The statement said Pakistan would remain engaged with India on this issue “in line with our decision to counter and completely eliminate terrorism”. India says it has provided “actionable intelligence” to Pakistan to act against those who masterminded the Pathankot attack, one week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Lahore and met Sharif. IANS