Zeack News

M Zulqernain

Lahore, June 16 : Five activists of the Jaish-e- Mohammed were today arrested in Pakistan's Punjab province, sparking speculation that the outlawed terror group's chief Maulana Masood Azhar has been detained.



The five JeM members were arrested from Sialkot late this evening, police said.



Soon after the arrests were made, unconfirmed reports said officials of intelligence agencies have arrested Masood Azhar, who is wanted in India for his involvement in several terror attacks.



Sialkot district police chief Waqar Chohan, however, only confirmed the arrest of five JeM members.



"We have taken five JeM men into custody for their suspicious activities. Maulana Masood Azhar was not among them," he told Zeack.



Azhar was freed along with two other terrorists in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines jet that was hijacked from Kathmandu in Nepal to Kandahar in Afghanistan in 1999. India had asked Pakistan to hand him over soon after the Mumbai terror attacks but the Pakistani government said it was not aware of his whereabouts. Ze