Uri attack: India gives evidence nailing Pak-based militants' role to envoy

New Delhi: Taking a firm stand, India on Wednesday gave Pakistan evidence of involvement of Pak-based terrorists in the Uri attack and demanded that it refrain from supporting and sponsoring terrorism directed against this country.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and told him that latest terrorist attack in Uri only underlines that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan remains active.

Jaishankar provided Basit with the content of GPS recovered from the bodies of terrorists with coordinates that indicate the point and time of infiltration across the LoC and the subsequent route to the terror attack site and grenades with Pakistani markings as evidence of Pakistan's role in Uri attack in which 18 jawans were killed.

"If the Government of Pakistan wishes to investigate these cross-border attacks, India is ready to provide fingerprints and DNA samples of terrorists killed in the Uri and Poonch incidents," he told the Pakistan envoy.

Asserting that the latest terrorist attack in Uri only underlines that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan remains active, Jaishankar demanded that Pakistan lives up to its public commitment to refrain from supporting and sponsoring terrorism against India.

He also reminded Basit that the Pakistan government had made a solemn commitment in January 2004 to not allow its soil or territory under its control to be used for terrorism against India. "The persistent and growing violation of this undertaking is a matter of very serious concern," he told Basit.

In a release, External Affairs Ministry said this year, beginning with the Pathankot airbase attack, there have been continuous attempts by armed terrorists to cross the LoC and International Boundary in order to carry out attacks in India.

"Seventeen such attempts have been interdicted at or around the LoC, resulting in the elimination of thirty one terrorists and preventing their intended acts of terrorism. Foreign Secretary also reminded him that even as he spoke two engagements at the LoC were ongoing," it said.

Apart from GPS content, India has recovered a number of items that included communication matrix sheets and equipment, other made in Pakistan stuff like food, medicines and clothes, which were shown to Basit. "We now expect a response from the Government of Pakistan," Jaishankar told him.

Basit's summoning came a day after Jaishankar headed a high-level meeting, attended by senior Home Ministry officials and Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), during which the evidence recovered by Indian Army from the terrorists was shared with the MEA.

Following the tragedy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strongly condemned the "cowardly terror attack" and assured the nation that those behind the "despicable attack" will not go unpunished.

Sources state that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will strongly emphasize Pakistan's involvement in the attack during her UNGA speech on September 26.

Pakistan has, however, flatly rejected New Delhi's claims of involvement in the Uri terror attack, stating that the latter has a traditional tendency to point fingers at the former whenever a terror attack takes place on Indian soil.

Meanwhile, the National investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the terror attack in Uri Sector of Jammu and Kashmir, will be seeking the help of the Army, Intelligence Bureau and RAW to get identities of the terrorists verified.

The agencies will be asked to provide the NIA with intercepts of the last two to four months in the region.

As per sources, Kashif Jaan, who had escorted the Pathankot terrorists till the border, could also have been the handler of the slain terrorists in Uri. The NIA sources say that Uri attack may have been masterminded by Kashif Jaan, Rauf Asgar and Masood Azhar.

On Tuesday, NIA had filed an FIR in the Uri terror strike case and a six-member team will soon visit the site of the attack to collect the evidence in the matter. According to sources, NIA will collect the blood samples and finger prints of the four killed terrorists in Uri.

The Army is set to handover all items recovered from the killed terrorists including weapons, navigation maps to the NIA for further investigation. The NIA will also send the GPS and icon satellite set to the United States for forensic investigation to find out what route the terrorists chose and when and how they entered Indian territory.