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Indian security forces patrol the
Pathankot airbase following the assault,
in which seven soldiers were killed. Photograph:
Imago/Barcroft
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Pakistan said it had arrested members of the
Islamist terror group widely blamed for a four-day attack on an airbase in India
“The offices of the
organisation are also being traced and sealed,” said a statement from the
Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
The government said Pakistan
Past crackdowns on JeM
ultimately failed to dismantle an organisation that continues to operate openly
in Pakistan
Wednesday’s announcement is
nonetheless a potentially significant step against an organisation long
patronised by Pakistan India
The announcement was cheered by
peace campaigners, who feared the Pathankot incident had been deliberately
mounted to derail a renewal of high-level diplomatic engagement between the two
south Asian countries, which have fought four wars since independence in 1947.
India’s foreign secretary,
Subrahmanyam Jaisankar, is due to travel to Islamabad on Friday to discuss the
resumption of the peace process between the neighbouring states, which has been
stalled since the Mumbai terror attackslaunched by
Pakistan-based terrorists on targets in India’s commercial capital in 2008.
The meeting has hung in the
balance as Delhi Islamabad Islamabad
Many analysts suspect the
incident, and an assault by gunmen on an Indian consulate in Afghanistan on 3 January, were deliberately
intended to spoil historic overtures Modi made on 25 December during a surprise
visit to the Pakistani city of Lahore
Some even feared that Pakistan India
JeM has long been associated
with Pakistan Pakistan
Masood Azhar, the group’s
leader, was arrested in the aftermath of a JeM assault on India
Imtiaz Alam, the head of the
South Asia Free Media Association, which campaigns for peace between the two
countries, said the JeM arrests showed the military were serious in their
oft-stated claim to be cracking down on all terrorist groups.
“They are no more supported,
even if some elements may have become autonomous and are doing their own
private practice,” he said.
“It is a very good omen that Pakistan
Modi, a Hindu nationalist who
won power in a landslide victory in 2014, has repeatedly surprised observers
with a series of unorthodox initiatives aimed at engaging with his counterpart
in Pakistan
He invited Sharif to his
inauguration ceremony, but then allowed the armed forces to take part in a
major artillery duel with their Pakistani counterparts after clashes along the
contested border.
Senior officials later said
that both moves had been designed to test Pakistan
The Pathankot assault, which
dragged on for days before all the attackers were killed, has prompted fierce
domestic criticism of India
Newspapers have reported poor
perimeter security, coordination and decision-making – the Indian Express
described “glaring gaps in planning, command, training and equipment”
– and ministers have been accused of making a series of misleading statements.
Underlining the complexity of
evolving threats from terrorism in the region, Pakistan Jalalabad
Local officials said at least
seven members of the Afghan security forces were killed in an assault claimed
by Islamic State, which has secured a foothold in Nangarhar.
The group claimed the attackers
had succeeded in killing “several Pakistani intelligence officers”, but Islamabad
Additional reporting by Mokhtar
Amiri in Kabul
