Jaish-e-Mohammed founder and top terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar has been placed under house arrest as international pressure mounted on Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Jaish-e-Mohammed founder and top terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar has been placed under house arrest as international pressure mounted on Pakistan to act against such "non-state actors" in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in which Pakistani elements were found to be involved.
Restrictions were imposed on Azhar's movements on Monday and he was confined to his Bahawalpur home, which was surrounded with security personnel, Dawn News channel quoted sources in the interior ministry as saying.
The Pakistani action came even as Islamabad rejected India's demand to hand over the JeM founder along with two 1993 Bombay blasts accused -- underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon.
Masood's organisation is widely believed to have close links with other major terror groups operating out of Pakistan like the al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Toiba and runs a number of terror training camps in PoK as well as other areas of Pakistan.
The action against Masood came a day after security forces arrested key LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi, suspected to be the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, along with 20 other militants. The Pakistan Army said on Tuesday that the crackdown against the banned militant group will continue.
"More arrests are expected," an army official said adding that operations will continue till "desired results" are achieved.
A contingent of security personnel had been deployed outside Azhar's house since Monday, the sources said but added that he would not be handed over to India.
No action would be taken against Masood, sources said unless India provides "concrete evidence" of his involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
India's demand to hand him over along with Dawood and Memon was made in a demarche on December 1. Pakistan turned down the demand, but said it would take action under the country's laws against any Pakistani national found to be involved in the Mumbai attacks.
Azhar formed the Jaish shortly after he was freed by Indian authorities along with two other terrorists in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines flight hijacked from Kathmandu to Kandahar in 1999.
Masood had been arrested in Srinagarand had later told police officials that he had infiltrated Kashmir to form a broad umbrella organisation of the various Pakistan supported groups.
His movements have been restricted by Pakistan in the past too when India had demanded his handing over.
There have been reports in recent months that Azhar and the Jaish had stepped up activities, including the raising of funds and organising large rallies, in the Bahawalpur area.
Azhar and his group had faced restrictions in the wake of the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament and the 2003 suicide attacks on former President Pervez Musharraf.
The Jaish was renamed as Khudam-ul-Islam and reorganised under the command of Mufti Abdul Rauf, the younger brother of Azhar.
The US State Department designated the Jaish as a foreign terrorist organisation in December 2001, forcing the Musharraf regime to slap a ban on the group in January 2002.
Azhar was formally arrested by Pakistani authorities in December 2001 following the attack on India's parliament but a review board of the Lahore High Court ordered his release a year later.
Azhar reportedly fell out of favour with the Pakistani establishment in the wake of American allegations about his al-Qaeda links and because of the belief that he had been providing logistical support to fugitive al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
Following the January 2002 kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl by Sheikh Ahmed Saeed Omar, a close aide of Azhar, the US had sought the custody of the Jaish chief.
The US had said its authorities wanted to file charges against him for his involvement in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight, which had an American citizen on board.
However, Pakistani authorities had turned down the US demand, saying Azhar was not a hijacker and his incarceration in India had been "illegal".
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