Pakistan evading responsibility for Pulwama terror attack, sheltering Masood Azhar, says MEA

New Delhi: India on Thursday slammed Pakistan for evading responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack and pointed out that Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, a key accused in the case, continues to find shelter in that country. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the chargesheet into the Pulwama attack case has been filed after an investigation spanning one-and-a-half years. “Jaish-e-Mohammad had claimed the responsibility of Pulwama attack. The organisation and its leadership are in Pakistan. It is regrettable that Masood Azhar, the first accused in the charge sheet continues to find shelter in Pakistan,” Srivastava said at an online media briefing. “Enough evidence has been shared with Pakistan but it continues to evade responsibility,” he added. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet in the Pulwama case detailing how Pakistan-based JeM terror outfit planned and carried out the attack. “It (chargesheet) has been filed to address the act of terrorism and to bring perpetrators of such a heinous crime to justice. Our aim is not to simply issue statements or notifications,” Srivastava said. India had carried out a strike on a JeM terrorist training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot area on February 26 last year, in response to the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. Srivastava also added that Pakistan has not yet taken any credible action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack of 2008 which resulted in the loss of 165 innocent lives. On Pakistan’s U-turn on presence of Dawood Ibrahim in the country, Srivastava said Islamabad has never taken “any credible and verifiable action” against terror entities or listed individuals, including the most wanted ones. “This subsequent denial by their Foreign Office calls into question their intentions and it would not mislead the world community in believing its propaganda,” he said. “Pakistan must take credible action and ensure that the listed individuals are prosecuted,” the MEA spokesperson added. Ibrahim’s name figured in a list of 88 people which was published as a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, later Pakistan rejected media reports saying the SRO list is an acknowledgement of Ibrahim’s presence in the country.