Pakistani team finds no evidence of JeM chief’s involvement in Pathankot assault

ISLAMABAD: A team constituted by Pakistan to investigate last month’s deadly attack on an Indian airbase has concluded that there is no substantive evidence to suggest Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of the outlawed Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militant group, ordered or masterminded the assault.

Six gunmen attacked an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot on January 2, leading to a three-day-long standoff that killed seven soldiers. New Delhi had claimed that the attackers belonged to the JeM and they had sneaked in from southern Punjab district of Bahawalpur. The claim was based on mobile communication the Indian spy agencies had intercepted between the attackers and their alleged handlers in Pakistan.