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India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary level talks deferred; Maulana Masood Azhar's arrest still unconfirmed

Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said the FS-level talks on Friday for which Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar was to travel will not take place as planned.

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The Foreign Secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan to draw a roadmap under the recently announced 'Bilateral Comprehensive Dialogue', have been postponed. They were earlier scheduled to take place on January 15.

Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said the FS-level talks on Friday for which Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar was to travel will not take place as planned.

He told a news briefing that both sides were holding consultations to reschedule the talks.

To questions on the detention of Azhar, he said, "I am not aware of any such arrest. I don't have anything else apart from the statement issued by the PMO yesterday."

India had on Wednesday night deferred a decision on whether to go ahead with the Foreign Secretary- level talks with Pakistan on Friday after the detention of "several individuals" of the dreaded JeM by Islamabad although there was no confirmation of reports that its chief Maulana Masood Azhar was held.

Ministry of External Affairs Ministry officials said after a two-hour meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj that it was decided to await the return of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval from Paris on Thursday afternoon for a call to be taken.

Earlier, reports from Islamabad said that Azhar, his brother and "several individuals" belonging to his dreaded terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad which is suspected to have engineered the Pathankot attack, were detained and their offices sealed after India demanded action, linking it to the fate of FS-level talks.

Pakistan on Wednesday set up a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising security and military officials to probe whether any Pakistani individual or organisation was involved in the Pathankot terror attack in India.

(With PTI inputs)

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