5 January 2016

Raheel Sharif vs Nawaz Sharif: Pakistan army chief knew about Pathankot attack?

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/raheel-sharif-vs-nawaz-sharif-pakistan-army-chief-knew-about-pathankot-attack/1/562327.html
The Indian political establishment has been informed at the highest levels that the Pathankot attack has been carried out with the full knowledge of the Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif.
Rahul Kanwal, New Delhi, January 4, 2016 |

The Indian political establishment has been informed at the highest levels that the Pathankot attack has been carried out with the full knowledge of the Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif.
The combined inputs of India's intelligence agencies suggest that the Pakistan army is not fully on board with Nawaz Sharif's efforts to forge peace with India.
At a meeting recently, Pakistan's Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif reportedly told Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif that he was free to pursue talks with PM Modi if he wanted, but the Pakistan army will take no action against Pakistan-based terrorists who were operating against Indian interests.

Since December 2014, Indian agencies say the ISI has been working on reviving the fortunes of the Jaish-E-Mohammad. Over the past few years some elements of the Jaish had merged with the Lashkar-E-Jhangvi, which had been staging attacks in Pakistan. Indian agencies believe that the effort to revive the Jaish is part of the effort to ensure that the Jaish cadre remain committed to fighting against India and do not train their guns on Pakistan.

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a Sunni extremist group based in Pakistan. The LeJ has claimed responsibility for various mass casualty attacks against the Shia community in Pakistan, including multiple bombings that killed over 200 Hazara Shias in Quetta in 2013. It has also been linked to the Mominpura Graveyard attack in 1998, the abduction of Daniel Pearl in 2002, and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009. A predominantly Punjabi group, the LeJ has been labelled by Pakistani intelligence officials as one of the country's most virulent terrorist organisations.
Indian intelligence agencies believe that the terrorists who infiltrated across the border were trained by ISI handlers and were adept at commando operations quite like the 26-11 attackers.
The Indian government has so far not taken a firm view on whether or not to cancel the Foreign Secretary level which are scheduled in Islamabad on January 15. The official word is that the government is mulling all options. There is one view in government that the talks should be deferred as this is not the right time for dialogue with Pakistan and that India should insist on NSA level dialogue first to discuss the Pathankot attack. The other view is that this is exactly what the masterminds of Pathankot want and to cancel talks would be to play into the hands of those who do not want peace between India and Pakistan. A final decision will be taken at the level of the Prime Minister once the mopping up operation in Pathankot is over.

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