No evidence links Jaish chief to Indian airbase attack: officials

 ISLAMABAD: A special investigation team set up in Pakistan to probe a deadly assault on an Indian airbase last month found no evidence implicating the leader of the group India blamed for the attack, Pakistani security officials said Monday.

The officials said the team interrogated Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his associates and found no evidence linking him with the Jan 2 attack on the Pathankot airbase in northern India that killed seven Indian military personnel.

“We searched their homes, seminaries, hideouts and also examined their call records for past three months and found nothing dubious,” a security official with links to the investigating team said.

A spokesman for India’s foreign ministry declined to comment on reports of the special investigation team’s findings. In January, Pakistani authorities detained Maulana Azhar and several members of Jaish-e-Mohammad, sealed offices belonging to the outfit, and shut down several religious schools run by the group.

The security officials said Azhar remained in custody, but did not say whether authorities were considering his release. The investigating team has not ruled out the possibility that other members of Azhar’s group may have been involved, the officials said.