Arrest warrants against JeM chief, 3 others

A day after Pakistan indicated that there maybe no reciprocity for India after the JIT visit to probe the Pathankot terror strike, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday decided to take forward its probe and secured arrest warrants against Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar and three others in connection with the case. Top sources said Pakistan has developed cold feet on the issue and are not allowing NIA to visit the country since the agency has enough evidence to nail ISI’s links with terrorists involved in it.

On Friday, a special NIA court in Mohali issued the “open-ended non-bailable warrant” against Azhar, his brother, main handlers Kashif Jaan and Shaid Latif for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with JeM terrorists for carrying out a terror strike on the IAF base. An Interpol Red Corner notice is already pending against Azhar for being allegedly involved in the conspiracy behind attacks on Parliament and Jammu and Kashmir state assembly. Similarly, an Interpol Red Corner Notice is pending against Rauf in connection with the IC-814 hijacking case of 1999.

The non-bailable warrant will be sent to Interpol. Notably, India is also working to strengthen its case for proscribing Azhar as terrorist at the UN after the move was vetoed by China.

While Pakistan has backtracked from its promise to allow a team of Indian investigators to visit there to probe the case with its high commissioner Abdul Basit saying there was no “reciprocity’’ in the matter, the NIA is yet to receive a formal response from Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the special court issued the arrest warrant after weighing the evidence presented by NIA, which included telephonic conversation between the terrorists and the JeM handlers Jaan and Latif. The video of Rauf, Azhar’s brother, was also presented before the court. In the video which was uploaded on a website being hosted from Pakistan, Rauf had claimed responsibility for the attack and complimented his boys for it. The video has since been removed and the website has also gone off the cyber world.

NIA has already sought voice samples of Azhar and three others from Pakistan’s JIT . The NIA had given the JIT critical evidence on Pakistani handlers of the terrorists who carried out the January 2 attack on the strategic airbase. The JIT was given full transcript of the telephonic conversations between the terrorists and their Pakistani handlers along with their identity, the sources said.

The NIA gave to JIT the links of Pakistani officials, believed to be ISI personnel, with the handlers of the terrorists, the sources said.

The JIT was provided with evidences regarding the slain terrorists’ Pakistani links, name of the terrorists and several other critical evidence after an exhaustive probe conducted by the NIA.

“The sudden u-turn on its promise to allow an NIA team to visit Pakistan could be the result of pressure from the ISI which realised that its activities of sponsoring terror in India may be exposed,” a source said.

The NIA had recently also approached probe agencies of some foreign countries including the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to strengthen its evidence against the terror outfit by studying the markings on weapons and other equipment seized from after the 80-hour gun battle and strengthen its case .