Lahore: Taking a complete U-turn, the Pakistan government Saturday dismissed its own claim of taking over the control of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) headquarters in Bahawalpur and said the complex has no link with the terror outfit, which claimed responsibility for the deadly Pulwama suicide attack that killed more than 40 CRPF personnel in Jammu and Kashmir.
In a video message on social media, Pakistan’s Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the Punjab government took administrative control of ‘Madrassatul Sabir’ and ‘Jamia-e-Masjid Subhanallah’ in Bahawalpur in line with the decisions taken during the national security council (NSC) meeting conducted Thursday and as part of the national action plan.
Rejecting his earlier announcement that the complex was JeM headquarters, Chaudhry said, “This is the madrassah (seminary) and India is doing propaganda that it is the JeM headquarters.”
It must be mentioned here that the minister Friday had told this agency that the Punjab government has ‘taken over the control of the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur’, about 400km from here.
“The government of Punjab has taken over the control of a campus comprising Madressatul Sabir and Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah in Bahawalpur, allegedly the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammad, and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs,” Chaudhry had informed then.
A statement issued Friday by the Interior Ministry also said the crackdown on Jaish ‘has been taken in line with the decision of the NSC meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan’.
The Pakistani government Saturday also took a group of local journalists to the campus in Bahawalpur and claimed that it is a ‘routine seminary having no link with JeM’.
Bahawalpur Deputy Commissioner Shahzaib Saeed accompanied the group to the campus showing ‘business as usual’ there. “Some 600 students are studying here and none of them is associated with any banned organisation or involved in any terror activity,” he said.
The commissioner denied association of the seminary and the mosque with Masood Azhar.
A local journalist, who visited the seminary and spoke to some students and teachers there, said, “When asked about the JeM and Masood Azhar, they feigned complete ignorance. Perhaps they were briefed before our visit.”
PTI