New Delhi: 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.
The Pakistani team will land at Pathankot at 10 am Tuesday to begin its probe, a first-of-its-kind investigation on Indian soil. “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,” the NIA statement said.
As protests raged in the Delhi Assembly over the NDA government’s move to host an ISI official in the country, the NIA D-G clarified that the Pakistan government had sent the list of JIT members and the government had accepted it. “The NIA has nothing to do with it,” he said.
Following day-long interactions with JIT members, the NIA D-G said, “The JIT has not asked for anything more nor have they raised questions on the probe conducted so far by the NIA.” The JIT will return to the national capital Wednesday evening where it will once again meet the NIA top brass and investigating officers.
Mr Parrikar said that as far as the defence ministry was concerned, they had issued clear directions that the “crime scene” should be barricaded — visually blocked or obstructed — and that external entry should be given to NIA. “If I don’t permit them this crime investigation freedom, then the crime investigation failure would be blamed on the defence ministry. We have isolated the area completely,” he said, clarifying that the crime scene was least sensitive and a non-functional area, except for a hostel for foreign cadres and the mess.
“This area is isolated and taken out from the airbase till the investigation is completed. Permission to land at the airbase has been refused, permission to use any of the defence instruments, like vehicles, has been refused. Permission to speak to any defence personnel has been refused,” he said, adding these questions should be directed to the NIA.
The five-member Pakistani JIT is headed by Pakistan Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) chief Muhammad Tahir Rai and comprises Lahore deputy director-general, Intelligence Bureau, Mohammad Azim Arshad; ISI official Lt. Col. Tanvir Ahmed; Military Intelligence official Lt. Col. Irfan Mirza; and Gujranwala CTD investigating officer Shahid Tanveer.
