Typical Pakistan doublespeak, says former Dy NSA on Pak narrative about whereabouts of Masood Azhar

By Ayushi Agarwal
New Delhi [India], September 15 : Former Deputy National Security Advisor of India, Pankaj Saran on Thursday called out Pakistan's letter to the Taliban for the arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar and said that Pakistan always indulges in double speaks and tries to shift the blame here and there.
Speaking to ANI, the Deputy NSA said what we are witnessing now is the unravelling of the cosy relationship between the Taliban and 'its erstwhile mentors, Pakistan and the country tries to shift the blame here and there.
"This is typical Pakistan double-speak. The fact of the matter is, as far as India is concerned, Masood Azhar is an International terrorist recognized by the United Nations. He let the Harkat ul-Ansar. He was responsible for the terror waves in Jammu and Kashmir. And as far as India is concerned, he is very very important person in the entire terror network but the most interesting thing is, for the Taliban to issue such a strong denial and to actually contradict Pakistan. So, I think it just shows that now, what we are seeing is the unravelling of the cozy relationship between the Taliban and its erstwhile mentors Pakistan on such a sensitive issue because the Taliban seems to understand this", Saran told ANI.
Calling the Taliban's rebuttal 'interesting', Saran added that more differences between the Taliban and Pakistan may be seen in the future.
"It is a non-negotiable issue. The Jaish-e-Muhammad is a National Security threat. So, it's very interesting to see how quickly the Taliban have rebutted the Pakistani accusation. And I think we even can see more of these differences coming between the two. And obviously, Pakistan is trying to shift the blame here and there. But today Afghanistan is in no mood to appear, we have to still watch them see how they respond to all these kinds of things", said Saran.
Notably, Pakistani media had previously reported that Masood Azhar is in Afghanistan's Nangarhar and Kanhar areas. A letter demanding his arrest was written to the Afghanistan authorities by Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, reacting to the letter, Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said, "The leader of the Jaesh-e-Mohammad group is not here in Afghanistan. This is an organization which could be in Pakistan. Anyway, he is not in Afghanistan and we have not been asked anything like this. We have heard about it in the news. Our reaction is that this is not true," according to Tolo News.
Interestingly, this comes when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has mounted pressure on Islamabad to take action against terror funding emanating from its soil.