Pathankot attack: Pak probe team reaches airbase amid protests

Congress activists protested outside the airbase as a 5-member team from Pak arrived at Pathankot.

Pakistan's Joint Investigation Team (JIT) arrived in Pathankot today to continue their probe into the January 2 attack, where seven Indian military personnel were killed by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists.

“The JIT will be taken to different locations associated with the Pathankot attack case on March 29. The exercise is aimed at providing evidence to the Pakistan JIT so that all those guilty of the Pathankot attack can be prosecuted effectively in Pakistan,” a statement from the National Investigation Team (NIA) said.

Security has been tightened in Pathankot ahead of the Pakistani probe team's visit. (Photo: Twitter)

The Pakistan JIT, who reached Amritsar this morning, were on their way to Pathankot attack site in bullet-proof SUVs to continue with their investigation, a first-of-its-kind investigation on Indian soil. Security has been tightened outside the Pathankot airbase ahead of the probe team's visit. A large police contingent has been deployed in and around Dhangu village where the IAF base is located.

Punjab Police escorted the convoy of the Pakistani team which also has ISI's Lt Col rank officer Tanvir Ahmed, Lahore's Deputy Director General Intelligence Bureau Mohammad Azim Arshad, Military Intelligence Lt Col Irfan Mirza and Gujaranwala CTD Investigating Officer Shahid Tanveer.

Police officials said they have diligently barricaded areas around the IAF facility. Orange and blue coloured tarpaulin can be seen draping the interiors of the strategic facility, in an apparent indication of 'visual prohibition' being put in place. "The district police has been informed about the visit and deployments have been done accordingly," a senior police official said.

Meanwhile, Congress workers staged a protest near the airbase against the visit by the Pakistani investigators.India on Monday officially handed over to Pakistani officials evidence that Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed is the terrorist group it suspects was behind the attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot, throwing the ball in Islamabad’s court to bring the probe to its logical conclusion and “act against the terrorists” taking shelter on its soil.

The National Investigation Agency on Monday gave a detailed presentation of the 48-hour battle with terrorists to the five-member Pakistani joint investigation team (JIT) — including an ISI official — as it shared evidence collected by it that nails the role of terrorists operating from Pakistani soil who “planned and executed” the terror attack at the sensitive airbase.

The JIT accepted the evidence, paving the way for the Pakistani team to visit the attack site on Tuesday morning. NIA D-G Sharad Kumar on Monday made it clear that the team would have “limited access” to the sensitive airbase. Officials stated that the Pakistani team would be visiting only those portions of the “crime scene” where the terrorists hid and carried out the attack that began in the intervening night of January 1-2.

Among the evidence shared by the NIA were some phone numbers, including those of Rauf, brother of Jaish chief Masood Azhar, and companies which had supplied packed food to the terrorists. India also gave the reasoning behind naming people connected to Jaish-e-Mohammed, including Mullah Dadullah and Kashif Jaan. Their phone numbers (of Pakistan telecom operators like Mobilink, Warid and Telenor) were also shared. Kashif Jaan, one of the key handlers of the attackers, had accompanied the terrorists to the border, the sources said.

“JIT of Pakistan and NIA. team are interacting under extant legal procedures of India and Pakistan,” the NIA said in an official statement. Noting that no permission has been given by the ministry of defence to enter the airbase, defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who had earlier publicly spoken against the planned visit of the Pakistani team to the Pathankot airbase, told a news agency the “crime scene” was under the NIA’s control and that it was up to the agency to decide who to allow or not.

He added that the “crime scene”, a “non-sensitive” area, has been completely barricaded, including visually, on his orders, and that no defence asset would be used to facilitate the visit of the Pakistani team.

“However, an area where the actual crime had taken place had been handed over long back to the NIA, which is conducting the entire investigation. Who will be taken there, who will probe, depends on the decision of the NIA,” Mr Parrikar said, replying to questions here on the sidelines of DefExpo. “We have specifically refused them permission to go anywhere in the airbase,” he said.