Pakistan arrests 42 including Masood Azhar son and brother for terror activities

Under immense international pressure, Pakistan today said that the brother and the son of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar have been arrested along with 42 other activists of banned outfits as part of the crackdown on terror groups. Azhar's brother Mufti Abdur Rauf and son Hamza Azhar have been arrested, Pakistan's Minister of State for Interior, Shehryar Khan Afridi told a media conference on Tuesday.

He said that the objective behind the crackdown is to ensure that Pakistan's soil is not used for terror activities in any way. "It is our own initiative, we have not done this under any pressure," Afridi noted.

The Pakistani minister added that an investigation will be carried against these 44 people to ascertain their role in terror activities and the process will take about 14 days. All the initiatives will be shared with all key stakeholders.

Interior Ministry Secretary said that if needed, the investigation can go beyond two weeks. The action, claimed by Pakistan, comes amidst intense world pressure on the Imran Khan government to act against terror outfits, particularly in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack, after India mounted a diplomatic campaign in this regard. The US has been particularly pushing Pakistan to take concrete action. India recently shared a dossier with Pakistan and key foreign powers, specifying how JeM was involved in Pulwama and various other terror attacks in the country.

(With inputs from agencies.)