ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday denied reports in international and local media claiming that officials from the United States (US) had a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif regarding the alleged link between Tashfeen Malik – the female shooter in the California rampage – and Lal Masjid and its cleric, a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s House said.
The statement said news reports regarding the meeting of a special US envoy with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London to discuss the California tragedy are ‘baseless’ and ‘incorrect.’
Reports had claimed that US officials had delivered a message regarding the alleged link between Malik, and Islamabad’s Lal Masjid, to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London.
Earlier, it was reported by the Los Angeles chapter of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations) that Tashfeen Malik was of Pakistani origin.
Malik had been married to Farook – the second shooter – for two years. The couple had a six-month-old baby girl, claimed CAIR.
Malik had also pledged allegiance to the militant Islamic State’s (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi using a separate Facebook account, according to US officials.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents have taken charge of the investigation of the mass shooting in San Bernardino and were combing through evidence.
Law enforcement officials quoted earlier by the The New York Times said the FBI was treating the shooting as a potential terrorist act.
Malik, with her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, opened fire on a banquet at a social services centre for the disabled in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen others.
