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| India-Pakistan |
| 55 Dawa leaders detained, 22 on ECL: ministry |
| 2008-12-19 |
| The crackdown on the Jamaatud Dawa charity continues and 55 of its senior leaders have been detained, a private TV channel reported the Interior Ministry as saying on Thursday. Talking to the channel, an Interior Ministry spokesman said the names of 22 of those arrested had been placed on the Exit Control List. He said the detained men were being interrogated and no clues of their link to the Mumbai terror attacks had been found so far. The spokesman said the Indian government had not provided any credible evidence against the Jamaatud Dawa until now. He said there was no information on the whereabouts of Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar, the channel added. Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Azhar, who is wanted by the Pakistani authorities, was still at large. A Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters earlier that Azhar had been detained after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month. India has blamed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) and other 'elements' in Pakistan for the attack. It also blames LT and Jaish-e-Mohammad for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had sowed confusion on Wednesday when he told a TV channel Azhar was in custody, even though Pakistan's top diplomat in New Delhi was reported as saying Azhar was not being held in Pakistan. Qureshi said on Thursday he had been mistaken. "That's not right. Other people have been detained but Masood Azhar is at large. We have no knowledge of his whereabouts," Qureshi told Reuters. The Foreign Office clarified Qureshi's statement late on Wednesday night. "The foreign minister said Masood Azhar is wanted by the law enforcement authorities of Pakistan and is at large," it said. Analysts said the apparent confusion within the Pakistani government over Azhar did not bode well for bilateral ties. "For them to say we will give full co-operation and then say we cannot locate these people, shows why India and Pakistan have not built mutual trust for the last eight years," former Indian foreign secretary Shashank told Reuters in New Delhi. |
| Posted by:Fred |