Pakistan has arrested leading militants following the Mumbai attacks but says it will not hand them over to India. Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi were held. Mr Mukhtar made his remarks to India’s CNN-IBN channel. “Lakhvi was picked up yesterday. Azhar has also been picked up,” he said.
He also repeated Islamabad’s request for evidence to be shared with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari says peace talks with India must proceed to “foil the designs of the terrorists”. “Pakistan is committed to the pursuit, arrest, trial and punishment of anyone involved in these heinous attacks,” he wrote in the New York Times on Tuesday.
On Monday, Pakistan’s armed forces moved against a camp used by banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, reports say. However, an earlier report said the all suspected terrorists have been moved from these camps and some foreign correspondents were shown schools and hospital running in the complex. According to another report, LeT commander Zakiur Rehaman is among the 20 terrorist arrested by Pakistan forces.
Witnesses heard several loud explosions and saw a helicopter and dozens of army personnel at the scene. A BBC correspondent said the camp was sealed off, but Pakistani officials did not confirm its capture. India says the group is linked to the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan is under pressure from India and the US to act against the group. Reports said a number of people were arrested.
‘Military cordon’
The camp, on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, is run by the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, widely seen as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was itself banned in 2002.
Witnesses say the raid began on Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t know details as the entire area was sealed off but I heard two loud blasts in the evening after a military helicopter landed there,” local resident Nisar Ali told Reuters news agency.
The BBC’s Zulfikar Ali, in Muzaffarabad, said he was unable to reach the camp because of the cordon, but did see about 14 army vehicles leaving the area.
The Associated Press news agency quoted militants as saying the camp had been seized by the military
The New York Times, in a report on Monday quoting unidentified US intelligence officials, said that Pakistan’s main spy service had allowed the group to train and raise funds in recent years.
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, had shared intelligence with the group and protected it, the report said, but there was no evidence linking the ISI to the Mumbai attacks. — The ISt and BBC
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