Amid protests staged by Indian political parties and extremist Hindu groups, Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) concluded its investigation at Pathankot airbase, Indian media reported on Tuesday.
Security was tightened outside the Pathankot airbase on the occasion of Pakistan JIT’s arrival.
The five-member team entered the base through a separate entrance created for their visit.
The JIT members, which include Punjab Counter Terrorism Chief Additional IG Muhammad Tahir, Azeem Rashid, Lieutenant Colonel Tanveer, Lieutenant Colonel Irfan Miza and Inspector Shahid Mirza, were brought to the base in bullet-proof SUVs after landing in Amritsar.
Activists of India’s main opposition party, Indian National Congress, on Tuesday staged a protest demonstration outside Pathankot airbase against the visit by a Pakistan-based Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe January 2 terror assault, Indian media reported.
Meanwhile, right-wing Hindu extremist organisation Shiv Sena criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allowing the Pakistani investigation team to visit the Indian airbase to carry out investigations.
“The hospitality we have shown to Pakistan JIT does not suit our country’s self-respect and pride,” Sena MP in India’s upper house of the parliament, Sajnay Raut, said.
Right after the January 2 attack, in which seven Indian troops were killed, New Delhi had blamed the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group. Subsequently, Pakistan mounted a crackdown against Jaish and formed a joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate the Indian claim but New Delhi had been reluctant to allow the JIT to visit the base and collect evidence.
However, the team was finally given permission and met India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials. Upon their arrival in New Delhi, the JIT was given a ‘90-minute briefing’ by the NIA officials on the evidence collected so far, including the route of infiltration over the India-Pakistan border, identities of the dead attackers, and the information that links them to Jaish facilitators in Pakistan.
“We have pinned the route taken by the terrorists on a map and will be presenting it before the JIT. The riverine route and the village through which they entered along the Pakistan border have all been identified,” said an official.
The team, however, will not be allowed to speak to NSG, BSF or military personnel, who were present during the attack. They will also not be able to move freely around the base and will be restricted to the area that the terrorists had been in, officials said.
This is the first time India has allowed a team from Pakistan to carry out an investigation of this kind at such a sensitive location.
