India and Pakistan began formal discussions on investigations into the terror attack at the Pathankot IAF base on Monday. This is the first-ever visit of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from the neighbouring country that included an ISI official, to India.
The five-member Pakistani JIT is headed by Muhammad Tahir Rai, the Chief of Punjab’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and comprises
- Mohammad Azim Arshad, Lahore’s Deputy Director General, Intelligence Bureau
- Lt Col Tanvir Ahmed, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official
- Lt Col Irfan Mirza, Military Intelligence official
- Shahid Tanveer, Investigating Officer
The team was received at the headquarters of National Investigation Agency by Inspector General Sanjiv Kumar Singh.
They were given a detailed presentation on the probe done by Indian agencies so far. The Indian team also shared evidence that shows that the attack was planned in Pakistan, official sources said.
The team, which arrived on Sunday, will visit Pathankot on Tuesday for the probe into the attack carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) on 2 January, which left seven security personnel dead.
Sources say the Pakistani team would be raising questions to clear their doubts in the post-lunch session before they fly to Pathankot in a special plane on Tuesday morning.
The IAF base will be visually barricaded by the NIA to prevent any view of critical areas.
The NIA team would show some of the areas where the JeM terrorists were engaged in an 80-hour-long gun battle with security personnel.
India plans to provide the Pakistani team access to all witnesses in the case, but not to the security personnel from National Security Guard or the BSF.
The witnesses include Punjab Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma, cook Madan Gopal and 17 injured persons.
Sources also said that cooperation with the Pakistani team would be based on the principle of reciprocity, hoping that an Indian team would be allowed to travel to Pakistan at a later date.
(Also read: Pathankot Attack Investigation: What We Expect From Pakistan)
In the 26/11 Mumbai attack case, Pakistan had sent a judicial commission to cross-examine some of the witnesses in the case.
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