Desperate India blames Pakistan for Pathankot attack

• India’s Defence Minister Parrikar says Pathankot attackers had Pakistani state support
• Sartaj Aziz says Parrikar needs to ‘update the narrative’ that militant outfits enjoy Pakistani establishment’s patronage
• Says Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar may be presented to India for questioning if investigation points to his direct involvement in militant attack

As uncertainty looms over the probe on the Pathankot air base attack that killed seven Indian soldiers in January, India on Tuesday alleged that the Pakistan government is linked to the attack while a senior Pakistani official rejected the claim saying that Indian officials need to “update this narrative”.

India had previously blamed militants from Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) for the assault on the Pathankot air base in the northern state of Indian Punjab, which triggered two days of gunbattles.

But on Tuesday the Indian defence minister said the militants could not have carried out the attack without Islamabad’s support.

“Pakistan’s non-state actors were definitely behind the attack. Also, no non-state actor from there (Pakistan) can function smoothly without the state’s support,” India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the parliament.

“The entire details of the attack will only come out in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) investigation,” he maintained.

The charges leveled by India come a day after Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi had said that the Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the Pathankot air base attack will complete its investigation this week.

Fatemi had also said that Indian Prime Minister Narendar Modi is expected to visit Islamabad in November this year.

MASOOD AZHAR MAY BE PRESENTED FOR QUESTIONING:

Meanwhile addressing Defense Writers Group at a breakfast meeting in Washington, Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan may make Jaish chief Masood Azhar available to Indian investigating agencies for questioning, but it will first investigate the case.

Aziz also described as “outdated” Defence Minister Parrikar’s remarks that non-state actors operate in Pakistan with support of the establishment and said he needs to update this narrative.

“First of all, we have to investigate ourselves and (find out) what it is… if he (Masood) does something (wrong) we would move against (him),” said Aziz.

Aziz was responding to a question if Pakistan would make Masood available for interrogation if the Jaish leader is found guilty of the Pathankot terrorist attack. He was asked the question twice during an hour-long meeting with reporters over a breakfast.

“Is he (Masood) going to be shared with India for interrogation?” he was asked by a journalist.

“I think, (Pakistan’s) response to (terrorist attack in) Pathankot has been very positive and prompt. Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) immediately called the Indian Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and said we are ready to co-operate,” he said.

“So whatever intelligence came from there (India), national security advisor, immediate action was taken to take under protective custody some of their leaders as well as sealed their facilities, set up a joint investigation team. The first information report which is a legal requirement for our investigations to begin has been filed,” he said.

Pakistan last week set up a five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the terror attack on the Pathankot airbase, a week after it lodged an FIR over the assault without naming Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood who India has accused of having masterminded the strike.

“I am hoping that the investigation team would now go (to India) in the next few days. Then you would be able to trace the phone calls, who all…The phone call (from India) came to one or two numbers but then their links and the identities of the four people who were killed in the attack are also got to be established yet, as we haven’t got the right photographs or finger prints of those,” Aziz said.

“So once the process goes and considering the time that has elapsed, very good progress is being made and I hope that this would demonstrate to India that we are co-operating in this exercise and they would share the evidence that we require and whatever prosecution would require would take place,” Aziz said in response to a question.

Referring to the Parrikar’s remarks on non-state actors, Aziz said, “I think; it is out of date. This is the old narrative which India has been following. The situation (in Pakistan) is now very different.”

“Initially there were sympathies for certain groups, but after the December 2014 (army) school attack and the policy that there is no good and bad terrorist and we are going to move against all of them (things have changed).”

“But obviously you can’t move against all of them. (We would move against them) gradually and sequentially. So to that extent, I think the policy direction is very clear. And on the whole there was support for these groups within the local community, for example funding because many of them had a lot of welfare activities and under the cover of that they would raise funds. Now it is being monitored. You can’t collect fund without any accounting,” he said.

“So I think, the suspicion (of Parrikar) refers to the old previous ones when the Afghan related…you do not forget that the Mujahedeen of Afghanistan were trained, funded and armed jointly by the US and Pakistan. Then it was a different kind of operation. At that time they were not terrorists. They were called holy warriors. Once 9/11 happened they all became terrorist,” he said.

“Our policy of not supporting them is very significant. Because we realised that supporting them is bad for all our security. That’s why our relationship with Afghanistan started improving. The same is true with others. So I think, one has to update this narrative,” Aziz said while responding to the question on the statement made by Parrikar.

TWO TEAMS INVESTIGATING PATHANKOT:

There are currently two JITs probing the attack. A six-member investigation team was formed by the federal government to investigate the case soon after the attack, while a five-member JIT was constituted by the Punjab government last week after a First-Information Report (FIR) was filed by the Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department against the attackers at a Gujranwala police station.

The FIR was filed after Indian Defence Minister Parrikar accused Pakistan of “pretending to sleep” and not being serious about the probe into the air base attack.

Sartaj Aziz had last week revealed that one of the mobile phone numbers linked to the Pathankot airbase attackers had been traced to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) group’s headquarters in Bahawalpur.

JeM chief Masood Azhar has been named by India as the mastermind of the airbase attack and Sartaj had confirmed media reports that Azhar had been under “protective custody” since Jan 14.

The attack on Pathankot air base came days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise visit to Pakistan in December.

The incident led to the postponement of peace talks planned between the two countries.

The foreign secretaries of the two countries had been scheduled to meet in January, however, no fresh date has been announced.