Pulwama attack evidence is in Pakistan itself

Arun Joshi

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Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan asked for “actionable evidence” from India after the Pulwama attack to act against the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the group that owned responsibility for it in less than an hour after the gruesome attack. That was a mere excuse as Pakistan has a history of not acting against its strategic assets — terrorists.

If he truly believes that “Pakistan is the worst victim of terrorism and it hurts it the most if the terrorists operate from its soil,” he should have listened carefully to his own Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi who spoke at length about the relations between the Pakistan government and the terror group leadership.

In an interview to the BBC on Friday when Pakistan set free Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman as per the Geneva Convention, Qureshi said though the JeMis based in Pakistan, it is not involved in the Pulwama attack. He is seen and heard crooning,” No, no-no, no”. He was asked about the JeMpresence on the Pakistani soil and its role in the February 14 attack that triggered an unprecedented scale of tension between the two countries.

“They have not, (he repeated and insisted), they have not (carried out the Pulwama attack). He supplemented his assertion by saying that “their (JeM) leadership said so.” Whom did they tell, “the people who have known them.”

This reply was more intriguing and revealing than what Qureshi was seeking to deny by his gestures and words to Pakistan-based BBC correspondent Secunder Kermani.

First, the Pulwama attack is a grim reality that the world has seen.

Second, the JeMowned the responsibility. A video went viral and JeM till date has not denied that it did not take responsibility. Militant groups have often retracted their claim. Here the JeM has not reversed its claim. Third, Qureshi has revealed that there are people in the Pakistan establishment who are in touch with the JeM.

Fourth and most importantly, Qureshi trusts the word of the JeMmore than that of the circumstantial evidence and that of a sovereign nation of India.

Amusingly, the Foreign Minister also issued a medical bulletin of the JeM leader Masood Azhar whom the world views as terror mastermind, saying he is “unwell, very unwell, so unwell that he cannot leave his house”. If he is unwell, why should he be at home instead of a hospital unless Pakistan establishment has set up all medical facilities for him at his home itself?

Imran Khan should look at this actionable evidence when his own minister is shielding them. Qureshi was speaking like a spokesperson of the JeM. He knows it all. Why should Pakistan be asking India for the evidence?