ISLAMABAD, Jan 13 - Pakistan today arrested Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother and �several individuals� belonging to his dreaded outfit, which is suspected to have engineered the Pathankot Air Base terror attack, and sealed its offices after India demanded action, linking it to the fate of Foreign Secretary-level talks.
Azhar�s brother Abdul Rehman Rauf has also been arrested, Geo TV said.
While the arrest of several individuals was announced in a press release from the Prime Minister�s Office, there was no official word on Azhar�s detention.
Officials said Azhar, the dreaded terrorist and two other terrorists who were released from an Indian prison in 1999 in exchange for release of 155 passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane, has been taken into protective custody after raids on several JeM offices.
Pakistan has also said that it is considering sending a special investigation team to Pathankot as more information would be required to carry forward the process of cooperation with India.
The Pakistani action, which was reviewed at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, came as the fate of the FS-level talks scheduled for Friday hung in balance with just two days for Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to go to Islamabad for talks with his counterpart on resuming the bilateral dialogue process.
Terrorists belonging to the JeM are believed by India to be behind the Pathankot terror attack on January 2 in which seven security personnel were killed.
A PMO statement issued after the meeting today said, �Considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements reportedly linked to the Pathankot incident.� � PTI
