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Pathankot attack: Pak probe team to clear doubts with NIA today

A five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from Pakistan that included an ISI official arrived in New Delhi on Sunday.

New Delhi: From Monday, the JIT team will be given evidence that points to the attack being planned from across the border in Pakistan. Seven security personnel were killed in the attack.

In the post-lunch session, the Pakistani team will be raising their set of questions to the NIA investigators to clear doubts, if any, before they fly to Pathankot in a special plane on Tuesday morning, the sources said.

Read: Pathankot attack: Pak's probe team arrives in Delhi, will meet witnesses

The IAF airbase will be visually barricaded by the NIA to prevent any view of its critical areas and a NIA team will show some of the areas where the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were engaged in an 80-hour-long gunbattle with the security forces. India plans to provide the Pakistani probe team access to all witnesses in the Pathankot attack case but not security personnel from National Security Guard or the BSF.

The sources said cooperation to the Pakistani team would be based on the principle of reciprocity, hoping an Indian team will be allowed to travel to Pakistan at a later date.

Read: Pathankot probe: Congress slams Centre for giving access to Pak JIT

The witnesses include Punjab SP Salwinder Singh, his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal and 17 injured people. The three men were kidnapped by the terrorists on the night of December 31-January 1 before the terrorists entered the IAF base.

The NIA will also share details about the four terrorists, which includes their native villages, people who had cooperated with them and facilitated their entry into India through Bamiyal village on the Indo-Pak border.

Read: Pathankot attack: Ahead of Pak SIT's visit, NIA releases photos of terrorists

DNA samples were taken from the energy drink that they are believed to have consumed before carrrying out the sucide attack, official sources said. The Pakistani team will also be taken to the point where the Jaish terrorists had breached the border to enter India, they said.

India will also cite similarities between the Pathankot attack and those in Samba and Kathua last year.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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