The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which on Monday filed a charge sheet against Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, his brother, Abdul Rauf Asghar and two others, Shahid Latif and Kashif Jan, all based in Pakistan for plotting and executing the Pathankot airbase attack, tracked the Facebook footprints of Kashif Jan. The chat extracts established that he had full knowledge of the strike and he had played a key role in it. The agency said the four terrorists from Pakistan — Nasir Hussain, Hafiz Abu Bakar, Umer Farooq and Abdul Qayum referred to Jan as “Ustadji” and he continued to communicate with them over phone during the terror attack and kept “reassuring, motivating and encouraging the terrorists to accomplish the planned attack.”
The four terrorists infiltrated into Indian territory around 2 p.m. on December 30, 2015 from the Simbal border outpost in Punjab. They reached the airbase in the early hours on January 1, hid in a drain and then at a dilapidated shed on the premises for almost 19 hours. On the way from Simbal, the terrorists snatched a taxi and an SUV belonging to Punjab police officer Salwinder Singh.
They killed the taxi driver, Ikagar Singh, snatched the mobile phone of Mr. Salwinder Singh and used it to communicate with their handler, Kashif Jan and senior leaders and operatives of the JeM in Pakistan, on three Pakistan mobile numbers 923453030479, 923213132786 and 923017775253.
The terrorists tied, blindfolded and dumped Mr. Salwinder Singh and his cook Madan Gopal at an abandoned place in a forest area near village Gulpur Simli on the way to the Air Force Station. However, they took the third occupant, Rajesh Verma, a jeweller, along with them.
At 4 a.m. on January 1, the terrorists reached village Akalgarh near the Air Force Station and tied up Rajesh Verma. They slit his throat with an intention to kill him and abandoned him and the vehicle in the sugarcane fields. Thereafter, they moved towards the airbase on foot. The terrorists left behind a slip in the vehicle, which said, “ Jaish E Muhamad Zindabad Tanghdar se lekar Samba Kathua Rajbagh Aur Delhi tak Afzal Guru Shadeed Kay Jan nisar Tum ko meltay rahege. Insha Allah .
