Pak-India peace talks deferred

The Foreign Office said on Thursday that it is not aware of the arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammed's leader Masood Azhar.
It further confirmed that the foreign secretaries talks between Pakistan and India scheduled for January 15 (today) have been delayed.
"Pakistan is in touch with India to finalise the date for foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad," Foreign Office spokesperson Syed Qazi Khalilullah said in a news briefing here.
Vikas Swarup, India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman, told reporters in New Delhi that the meeting will now be held in "the very near future."
He denied speculation that the talks would collapse because of the attack.
India welcomed Pakistan's announcement on Wednesday of the arrest of several people from an outlawed militant group believed to be linked to the assault in Pathankot close to India's border with Pakistan. Seven Indian soldiers and six attackers died.
"The (Pakistani) statement conveys that considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements linked to the Pathankot incident," Indian spokesman Swarup said.
"The action against the Jaish-e-Mohammad (group) is an important and positive first step," he said.
He also said India was looking forward to a possible visit by a team of Pakistani investigating agencies to probe the attack on the air base.
Asked whose court the ball was now in, he replied in Hindi, "when the husband and wife are willing, who is the priest to interfere", indicating the talks would go ahead.
Earlier reports had suggested the arrest of Azhar, who has been named by New Delhi as the mastermind of the Pathankot airbase attack. Some media reports said he has been put under "protective custody", a term used to circumvent legal procedures that require production of the arrested person before a magistrate next day for temporary remand in custody of a law enforcement agency for interrogation.
Federal Information Minister Parvez Rashid told newsmen here Thursday several terrorists have been held by authorities following the leads provided by India regarding their involvement in the Pathankot air base attack. He, however, could not confirm if chief of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed organisation is also among them. The minister further stated that the foreign secretaries level talks have been postponed but not cancelled. He noted that both sides have responded maturely to the Pathankot attack without further exacerbating tensions. Media reports about Azhar had emerged after the government had announced on Wednesday that several individuals belonging to JeM had been apprehended based on initial investigations in Pakistan as well as the information provided by the Indian side. The offices of the outfit have also been sealed mostly in south Punjab.
The government statement, which followed a national security meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to discuss the actions taken on the leads provided by India, had also said that Pakistan is considering to send a special investigation team to Pathankot, in consultation with the government of India.
Prime Minister Sharif had later assured his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi that Islamabad would not hesitate to take "prompt and decisive action" if the involvement of Pakistan-based elements in the attack on the Indian airbase was proved beyond doubt. Azhar was arrested in India in February 1994. But India was forced to release him and two others - Mushtaq Zargar and Umar Sheikh - in December 1999 in exchange for passengers and crews of an Indian flight that was hijacked by militants linked to Harkatul Mujahideen from Kathmandu and forced to land in Kandahar. He has been in and out initially but remained quietly active preaching 'Jehad' for past several years. Political observers and a section of the media has, however, expressed surprise over revelation that the JeM was still operating offices that the government claimed to have sealed 13 years after it was banned.
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(With inputs from AP)