'Identical script as after 26/11, Pathankot attacks': India slams Pak’s response to Pulwama dossier

India on Thursday expressed disappointment at Pakistan’s response to New Delhi’s detailed dossier on Jaish-e-Mohammed’s involvement in the dastardly Pulwama terror attack.

“India is disappointed at Pakistan’s response to our detailed dossier on the Jaish-e-Mohammed’s complicity in the cross-border terror attack in Pulwama, the presence of its terror camps and leadership in Pakistan,” said a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs.

The reaction came after Pakistan said it examined the 22 “pin locations” shared by India but found no terror camps there and also claimed that it could not establish any links between the 54 people detained by authorities in Islamabad and the Pulwama attack.

“Regrettably, Pakistan continues to be in denial and even refuses to acknowledge Pulwama as a terror attack. It has not shared details of credible action, if any, taken by it against terrorists or terrorist organizations based in territories under its control,” the MEA said in its statement.

“We are hardly surprised, as this identical script was followed by Pakistan in the past, after the terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008 or in Pathankot in 2016. It is a well-known fact that the UN-designated terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed and its leader Masood Azhar are based in Pakistan. This was again acknowledged recently to international media by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister. There's no dearth of sufficient actionable information and evidence in Pakistan itself to take action against them, if there is sincerity and intent to do so” it added.

The MEA further said that Islamabad should abide by the commitment it gave in 2004 and should take immediate, credible, irreversible and verifiable actions against terrorists and terror organisations operating from its soil.

Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar's son and brother were among 44 members of the banned militant outfits arrested by authorities in Pakistan," Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi said on March 5.

Ministry of Interior Secretary Azam Suleman Khan said Hammad Azhar and Mufti Abdur Rauf were among those arrested on Tuesday. Hammad is the son of Masood Azhar while Rauf is his brother.

The Pakistan Foreign Office said, "Similarly, the 22 pin locations shared by India have been examined. No such camps exist. Pakistan is willing to allow visits, on request, to these locations." 

It said that in consistent with its commitment to cooperate, Pakistan on Wednesday shared "preliminary findings" of its investigations with India along with a set of questions. 

India handed over the dossier to the Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan in New Delhi on February 27 with specific details of JeM's complicity in the Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel on February 14 and the presence of JeM terror camps and its leadership in Pakistan.