In its first official briefing after the Pakistani probe team concluded its India visit regarding the attack at the Pathankot airbase, the government refrained from mentioning the name of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar for the attacks.
National Investigation Agency (NIA) D-G Sharad Kumar, who was asked to read out a statement on the visit on Friday, did not name either Azhar or his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar, one of the main handlers of the attacks, and referred them as “office bearers” instead. India has all always blamed Azhar for the attacks.
The NIA D-G also announced that India was eager to send a probe team to Pakistan. “The Pakistan JIT has been informed that a team of NIA officials would like to visit Pakistan to carry forward the investigation in the Pathankot attack case,” Mr. Kumar said.
A senior government official told The Hindu that the original press note had the name of Azhar in it but it was dropped after it went for vetting to the government. It was not clear whether the names were dropped at the level of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) or the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The Hindu had reported that the Pakistan JIT has informed NIA that they have not found any evidence, which linked the Pathankot attack to Azhar. The JIT had told the NIA that they were still verifying it.
“The NIA sought voice samples of some senior office-bearers of JeM, and DNA sample of the mother of slain terrorist Nasir Hussain. The JIT was also requested to verify the various articles seized from the terrorists, including arms and ammunition as mentioned in the Letter Rogatory sent earlier to Pakistan. The NIA shared with the JIT the identity and the address of the four terrorists and requested the JIT to confirm the same. The NIA presented the JIT with concrete evidence against the office-bearers of JeM who conspired in the attack,” Mr. Kumar said.
“The route taken by the terrorists was also shown to the JIT. These are part of the standard legal procedure of investigation in both the nations. The NIA briefed the JIT on investigations in the case of the attack carried out by the JeM on January 2, 2016 at Pathankot. The Pakistan JIT, in turn, shared with the NIA the results of investigations conducted by them so far in Pakistan. On JIT’s request, the NIA provided certified copies of postmortem reports, MLRs, CDRs, DNA reports and the seizure memo of articles from the scene of Crime. The Pakistan JIT was given access to 16 witnesses,” said Mr. Kumar.
