Pathankot attack: Pak investigation team seeks more evidence from India

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s claims that India was unable to provide any evidence of a Pakistani link in the Pathankot terrorist attack case is contradicted by its own investigation as the joint investigation team (JIT) that visited India last week had itself confirmed that parents of two jihadis killed in the strike had lodged missing persons complaints.Top government sources told TOI that the JIT had informed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that two of the four terrorists who stormed the IAF base had gone missing from their homes. Their parents, in fact, had lodged missing complaints at police stations in Pakistan. The records of the terrorists going missing from their respective homes without informing anyone were checked by Pakistani investigators before coming to India, said sources.The four fidayeen attackers, youngsters who joined Jaish-e-Muhammad and undertook the suicide mission on the direction of Jaish brass — Maulana Masood Azhar and Abdul Rauf — were identified by the NIA as Nasir Hussain, Hafiz Abu Bakar, Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum. They were residents of Punjab and Sindh regions in Pakistan, as first reported by TOIlast week.“The JIT informed us that two of them went missing much before the Pathankot attack,” said a source. “It is the biggest evidence that attack originated in Pakistan,” said the official. Subsequently, the JIT informed Indian officials that the counter-terrorism department of Lahore has arrested three Jaish handlers and logistics providers. Their names were reported in Pak media as Khalid Mahmood, Irshadul Haque and Muhammad Shoaib. “It is being suspected that these three probably dropped the fidayeen attackers at the border after providing them the necessary material,” the officer added.During the five-day interaction, the NIA handed over concrete evidence on Pathankot conspiracy and also asked the JIT to arrest Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf, JeM handlers Kashif Jaan and Shahid Latif along with a few others. This was all backed by call detail records, technical and forensic evidence, DNA samples and copies of FIR and statements of witnesses.Interestingly, the JIT wanted to question officers and commandos of Indian Army, Air Force and National Security Guards (NSG) who were part of the three-day operation that neutralised the terrorists but Indian officials did not agree. The NIA suggested that the JIT could visit the mortuary in Punjab to see and identify the bodies of attackers but the Pakistan officials refused to do so.