NIA team probing >Pathankot IAF base terror attack on Tuesday visited Kathua and Samba districts of Jammu region, where the Army and police facilities faced terror strikes in 2015, only to find similarities in the modus operandi of the terrorists.
Continuing its probe into the attack, the NIA summoned the caretaker of a shrine in Punjab which an SP-rank officer Salwinder Singh had claimed to have visited before being >kidnapped by terrorists who attacked the base hours later. Meanwhile, the agency questioned Mr. Singh for the second day on Tuesday.
NIA sources said a team of the agency on Tuesday visited >Army camp in Samba on the Jammu-Pathankot highway where two terrorists opened fire on March 21, 2015. The team also visited Kathua where >Rajbagh police station was attacked by a group of terrorists on March 20, 2015.
They said the agency could spot glaring similarities in the modus operandi of the terrorists, who staged attack on Kathua, Samba and those attacking Pathankot IAF base on January 1 this year.
The sources said the group which attacked the Samba Army camp was also carrying enough eatables and supplies for long haul fight with security forces. They had also holed themselves inside a civilian house opposite the army camp before escaping through a nullah.
NIA summons caretaker of Punjab shrine
Also on Tuesday, the NIA summoned Somraj, the caretaker of Panj Peer Dargah located a few kilometres from Bamiyal, the village from where the terrorists were suspected to have infiltrated India before mounting the attack, official sources said.
Mr. Somraj’s statement that Mr. Singh, the Superintendent of Police rank officer, had come to the shrine for the first time before the attack and that his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and his cook >Madan Gopal had visited the dargah twice the same day had raised eyebrows as the police officer has claimed he was a regular visitor.
Mr. Singh, who is being quizzed for second successive day on Tuesday at the NIA headquarters, continued to face tough questions from interrogators who have been asking him about various “loopholes” in his statement given to Punjab Police wherein he had claimed he had been blindfolded by the terrorists who spoke in Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri languages.
The NIA has already summoned Mr. Gopal to its headquarters on Wednesday for questioning. Sources said, if needed, he will be brought face to face with Singh, posted as Assistant Commandant of 75th battalion of Punjab Armed Police after he was removed as SP (headquarters) Gurdaspur.
NIA sources have not ruled out subjecting him to a lie detector test after seeking his and court’s nod.
The probe agency has sent his mobile phone to Central Forensic Science Laboratory.
The NIA also recovered a magazine with seven live bullets from the scene of encounter at the IAF base on Tuesday.
A 10-member NIA team involved in the search operations has already recovered an AK-47 magazine, mobile phone and binoculars, sources said.
