Masood Azhar, chief of the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed, was detained in Islamabad two days ago along with four of his key aides, sources have said.
Pakistan is delivering on its promise to cooperate with India in probing the terror attack in Pathankot with the detention of Jaish-e Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, Pakistani media pointed out minutes after the news broke this evening. The arrest, they mentioned, came two days before the scheduled India-Pakistan talks.
While the Karachi-based Geo TV broke the story, it speedily became the top story in The Nation and The News International.
The Jaish chief is suspected to be the mastermind of the attack, which took place on January 2. Seven security personnel were martyred in the three-day operation to flush them out.
But later in the evening, India said it has not received any confirmation from Pakistan regarding the detention. Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief him on the issue and discuss the foreign secretary level talks between the two nations.
With the strike coming days after the resumption of dialogue between the two nations, India has insisted that the foreign secretary level talks cannot progress unless Pakistan acts against those responsible for the attack.
"JeM chief arrested as Pakistan vows cooperation with India," read the headline of the Pakistani daily The Nation.
"News of the arrests comes 48 hours before a rare meeting between the foreign secretaries of the nuclear-armed rivals is tentatively scheduled to take place," the article read.
"Earlier today Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high level security meeting in Islamabad. According to reports the participants have showed satisfaction with progress on fight against terrorism," the report further said.
The News International, a daily published from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, too, focussed on the impending talks.
"Pakistan has promised it would get to the bottom of who was behind the assault on the air base after India handed over evidence to Pakistan that it said implicated Jaish-e-Mohammad in the January 2 attack, in which seven military personnel were killed," it reported.