New Delhi: In a significant shift from the usual denial mode of role in terror attacks in India, Pakistan has admitted that evidence given by India on Pathankot terror attack indeed established that the perpetrators were Pakistani nationals.
“Yes, there is convergence on evidence we shared with them. Something which could not be denied. The convergence is on both sides, that is on their side as well. We gave them post mortem reports and DNA reports of the four terrorists. The ammunition they were carrying which had Pakistan marking. The calls traced to Pakistani territory. All establishing that they were Pakistani nationals,” said a high-level official of the National Investigative Agency (NIA), which provided evidence to the Pakistan’s Joint Investigation (JIT) team. The newfound openness to the proof provided by the Indian side marks a decisive shift in Pakistani dispensation, which had been flatly denying the role of any of its national, as had happened in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case and several other cross border terror incidents.
The Indian-Pakistan joint probe entered the fourth day on Thursday, with JIT questioning more witnesses, which included controversial Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh, who was abducted and then released by the terrorists under dramatic circumstances a day ahead of the attack on Pathankot airbase on January 2.
The JIT assisted by the NIA also quizzed Salwinder’s cook Madan Gopal and his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma at NIA headquarters. A total of 13 witnesses have been examined.
JIT is likely to leave for Pakistan after interaction with NIA and is expected to boost its own case in Pakistan against perpetrators of the terror attack. However, the evidence will have to stand the scrutiny of trial court in Pakistan.
“We are trying to assist them to make their case in Pakistan stronger, with evidence that is not only irrefutable, but also acceptable by the Pakistani court under the law of the land,” the NIA sources said. NIA Director General Sharad Kumar on Wednesday said the Indian side presented a clinching evidence of involvement of Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar and his brother Muhammed Rauf in engineering the attack.
He said some more irrefutable and solid evidence of involvement of JeM in the attack has also been provided to the Pakistani side on Wednesday. The Pakistani probe team has not refuted or rejected the evidence furnished by the NIA on the role of terror outfit JeM in the incident.
Senior NIA officials said there was no voice of disagreement from the Pakistani side as the NIA investigators unfolded the plot of the Pakistan-based terror outfit JeM in engineering one of the most audacious attacks on the military station on Punjab border.
The Pakistan team and NIA team are interacting with each other under extant legal procedures of the two countries. The exercise is aimed at providing evidences to Pak JIT so that all those guilty for the Pathankot attack could be prosecuted effectively in Pakistan, Mr Kumar said. (UNI)
