Detention of Masood Azhar’s son & brother a sham: India

New Delhi: India has described Pakistan’s claim of putting Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar’s brother and son under “preventive detention” as a sham.

Forty-four under-observation members of proscribed organisations, including Mufti Abdul Raoof and Hamad Azhar, believed to be respectively the brother and son of Masood Azhar, have been taken in preventive detention for investigation, Pakistan interior ministry officials said on Tuesday.

“In order to implement National Action Plan (NAP), a high-level meeting was held in the Ministry of Interior on March 4, attended by all representatives of all provincial governments,” said a Pakistan ministry statement. “This is across the board; we don’t want to give the impression that we are against one organization,” said interior ministry secretary Azam Suleman Khan.


He acknowledged that some people who have been detained are named in the dossier handed by India on the Pulwama attack. “It does not mean that action is being taken against only those who are mentioned in the dossier.”

“There have been several instances in the past when such arrests or detentions were made under criminal cases that were not revealed. Both Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed have been detained under laws such as apprehension of breach of peace,” said an Indian official.

Pointing out that the top leadership has never been prosecuted under antiterror laws, officials said the detention could even be seen as a protective step. “Pakistan is in the grip of a fear psychosis and this could even be a way of providing security to these terrorists,” said Indian officials.

India will have “all options” available in case there is another terror strike, official sources asserted on Tuesday while maintaining that the government will insist on concrete steps taken by Pakistan in dismantling terror infrastructure.