Will take up whereabouts of Masood Azhar with Pakistan's SIT on Pathankot attack: MEA

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday said the visit by Pakistan’s Special Investigation Team ( SIT) on Pathankot terror attack will be an opportunity to discuss whereabouts of Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar. There have been conflicting reports on the whereabouts of the Pathankot attack mastermind.

While Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif has claimed that the fugitive is in Afghanistan, his foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Ajiz claimed that the Jaish chief is in protective custody since mid-January in Pakistan itself.

MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, Masood Azhar would be subject of discussion when the SIT team visits India. He also announced that India would soon move UNSC 1267 sanctions committee against Azhar.

ET was the first to report that India has prepared dossier to move the key UN committee against Azhar. While the committee has banned Jaish, it has so far failed to ban its chief due to China’s intransigence on the issue at the behest of Pakistan.

The spokesperson also mentioned that India is awaiting composition and schedule of the SIT. It is expected that the team will visit India within the next two weeks. Swarup said the two sides will work out various modalities or their meetings in India after Pakistan announces visit by the SIT.

"The government awaits details from Pakistan and also awaits visit by Pakistan’s SIT," Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh said in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz said on Monday that the SIT from Pakistan may visit Pathankot in the first few days of March and that his country was pursuing the investigation seriously.