Pathankot Attack: NIA Visit to Pakistan Still in Limbo

Final decision on NIA’s Pakistan visit is still to be taken as the two countries disagree on issue of ‘reciprocity’.

Pakistani Joint Investigation Team was allowed access to Pathankot airbase which was attacked by terrorists in January this year (Photo: The Quint)

There’s still no clarity on the NIA’s visit to Pakistan to investigate the Pathankot air base attack. This despite “terms of reference mutually agreed on the basis of reciprocity with the Pakistan JIT team” that visited India last month, the government said in Parliament on Wednesday.

“The details of the visit are yet to be finalised,” Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary told the Rajya Sabha.

The Pakistan Joint Investigation Team was informed, while they were in India, that a team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials who would like to visit Pakistan to carry forward the investigation into the 2 January Pathankot attack, he added.

File photo of Pakistan JIT briefing. (Photo: NIA)

India, Pak Disagree on Reciprocity

Pointing out that the case was under investigation in both the countries, Chaudhary said,

The interaction with the JIT was held in accordance with Terms of Reference mutually agreed on the basis of reciprocity. The Pakistan JIT assured of their full cooperation and promised to execute the LR (Letters Rogatory), which has been received by them. 

Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary, Minister of State for Home Affairs

However, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit in his statement on 7 April had said “the investigation (into the Pathankot attack) was not about reciprocity”.

Basit’s remarks had negated the NIA’s claims made on 30 March that Islamabad will “reciprocate” India’s gesture of allowing Pakistani investigators, including an ISI official, to visit the IAF base in Pathankot to probe the terror attack by Pakistani terrorists.

Also Read: Pathankot: Exclusive Details of NIA Presentation to Pakistan JIT