Pathankot attack: NIA to ‘prove’ Pak role

The National Investigation Agency is compiling a comprehensive report on Pakistan’s involvement in the attack on the Pathankot airbase, which will be submitted soon to the Union home ministry. The government will then decide how to confront Pakistan with the information provided by the investigative agency.

The NIA had approached US security agencies over its probe into the airbase attack. The US agencies, sources say, have told the NIA that the IP addresses of some Facebook accounts of Jaish-e-Mohammed operatives who were in touch with those who attacked the airbase were actually being operated out of Pakistan.

Most of these Facebook accounts are related to Jaish handler Kashif Jaan, who was in constant touch with the militants killed in the Pathankot attack. They were later identified as Abdul Qayum, Hafiz Abu Bakar, Umar Farooq and Nasir Hussain.

The US agencies also helped the NIA trace some phone calls and numbers between Kashif Jaan and the four slain militants. “Now the US agencies have informed us that the websites and their IP addresses have been traced to Pakistan, primarily in and around Karachi. It’s now certain that the Facebook account of Kashif Jaan was linked to the mobile number of one of the attackers,” a senior intelligence official said.