Backed with forensic and electronic evidence, the government will be presenting a “water-tight” case before Pakistan at the National Security Adviser-level dialogue saying the three militants involved in the Gurdaspur attack came from across the border.
The talks are expected to be held in Delhi on August 23-24. A top government official confirmed on Monday that the last week’s strike would be taken up. While India has consciously decided not to blame Pakistan for the attacks, it will present before it corroborative evidence like GPS coordinates and forensic evidence extracted from soil samples of the shoes of the three fidayeen militants, a senior official said.
The Hindu has learnt that India would also raise the following issues: Pakistan’s support to terrorists operating against India, which includes banned groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM); cross-border infiltration; fugitives like underworld don Dawood Ibrahim being sheltered by Pakistan; terrorist financing and pumping of Fake Indian Circulation Notes ; and, the impending trial against accused like Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
“We will be presenting hard-facts before Pakistan that the three fidayeen militants involved in Gurdaspur attack did come after crossing the border. As per their GPS coordinates, the origin is in Pakistan,” said a senior Home Ministry official.
Last week Home Secretary L.C. Goyal and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar met NSA Ajit Doval to discuss the issues to be taken up with Pakistan.
“The agenda is yet to be finalised but we are going to rake up contentious issues like Lakhvi’s bail with Pakistan. One of the main architects of the Mumbai attacks is roaming free even though we have given plethora of evidence against him,” said the official. Officials said they were trying to build a conducive atmosphere before the talks.
