Pakistan launches crackdown on militants blamed for Kashmir attack

DPA, 05th MARCH, 2019 - Islamabad (dpa) – Pakistan has arrested 44 suspects in an operation against the militant group blamed for a deadly suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir, the Interior Minister said on Tuesday.  

The arrests included leaders of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, Interior Minister Shehryar Afridi said.  

The brother and another close relative of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar were among the 44 militants who were arrested, Afridi told reporters in the capital Islamabad.  

India said a suicide bomber from Jaish-e-Mohammed, which Delhi claims operates from Pakistan, rammed his explosive-laden car into a convoy carrying Indian paramilitary forces on February 14, killing 40 of them.  

Earlier on Tuesday, the Pakistani Navy said it thwarted an Indian submarine’s attempted incursion into Pakistani territory, days after warplanes from the nuclear-armed neighbours violated each other’s airspace.