ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani yesterday said two top leaders of a militant group that India believes was behind the Nov. 26 attacks in Mumbai were being questioned by police.
Meanwhile, Pakistani jet fighters, including F-16s, were flying yesterday over Islamabad with live ammunition as a media report said India’s air defenses had been put on “highest alert.”
The prime minister said Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah were detained in a raid this week at the offices of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He also said that the country was in safe hands and that the agencies are still investigating suspects, even those on the Indian list. But there has been confusion over how many leaders from outlawed militant organizations have been arrested.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar told CNN-IBN on Tuesday that the chief of another terrorist group Jaish-e-Muhammad had also been apprehended by Pakistani security forces, but Gilani could not confirm that.
“We have yet to receive latest report on Masood Azhar,” he said. “As far as the other two people are concerned (Lakhvi and Shah), they are being investigated.”
An unnamed source said police were deployed outside Azhar’s family residence in Bahawalpur. “But Maulana (Azhar) is not there, he has already left the place,” he added.
The recent arrests were announced by Pakistani authorities as tensions between the two countries remained taut.
A report from CNN-IBN said the Indian Air Force raised its level of readiness to “Passive Air Defense.”
The high alert is in response to heightened perceptions of air attacks on Indian positions. All Indian military aircraft have been armed with bombs and missiles and are ready to take off within minutes. Even the warships of the Western Naval Fleet were aggressively patrolling the Arabian Sea, the report said.
Pakistani fighter planes circled over the capital Islamabad yesterday morning. A spokesman for Pakistan Air Force (PAF) told Deutsche Presse-Agentur they had no means to confirm the reports about alert status of the Indian Air Force, but said: “PAF is ready to defend the country.”
— With input from agencies
