Congress dubs Sharif’s assurance on Pathankot attack as ‘hollow’

New Delhi : The Congress Party on Tuesday dubbed Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s assurance that he would initiate prompt action against those responsible for the attack on the Pathankot air base as ‘hollow ‘ and cautioned that India should not be misled by it.
“Will their Army or ISI allow action against Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) and Masood Azhar? Let’s not be misled,” Congress leader Anand Sharma told ANI. “It is typical since Mumbai, hollow assurances and premise of sympathy,” he added.Sharif had called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi today and assured prompt action against those responsible for the Pathankot attack.The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that, during the conversation, Prime Minister Modi strongly emphasized on the need for Pakistan to take firm and immediate action against those responsible for and linked to Pathankot attack.The telephonic conversation takes place at a time when the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan scheduled for this month looks in serious jeopardy with strong indications that the Modi Government may call off the engagement if evidence emerges that Pakistan’s state actors were complicit in the fidayeen raid on the air base.Reports suggest that India expects Pakistan to take action against the leaders of terrorist group Jaish-e-Muhammaed, which scripted the attack on Pathankot, as a pre-condition for the talks.The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had earlier in the day said it expects cooperation from Islamabad for tracing the perpetrators of the Pathankot attack, saying it was clear that they were from Pakistan on the basis of the calls they made.