Pathankot attack: NIA to seek access to JeM chief Masood Azhar, others

New Delhi: After India allowed a Pakistani probe team to visit Pathankot airbase, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is investigating the case, has decided to seek access to Pakistan-based JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother-in-law Abdul Rauf and other alleged masterminds of the brazen assault.

"We will seek access to Masood Azhar and his brother-in-law at an appropriate time," Director General of NIA Sharad Kumar said. He said both of them were accused in the case and, at some stage, they needed to be questioned.

Read: Pakistan probe team has no access to Pathankot airbase, only crime scene

Seven security personnel were killed, while bodies of four terrorists were also neutralised in the January 2 attack.

Earlier, Pakistani investigators gave Masood Azhar a clean chit, saying the JeM chief had no role in Pathankot airbase attack.

“A team constituted by Pakistan to investigate the last month’s deadly attack on an Indian airbase has concluded that there is no substantive evidence to suggest Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of the outlawed Jaish-e-Muhammad militant group, ordered or masterminded the assault,” reported a Pakistani newspaper, adding the findings had been shared with India.

Read: Pathankot terror attack: Pakistan gives clean chit to JeM chief

While Azhar is wanted by India in several terror related incidents, including the Parliament attack case and bomb blast at Srinagar Assembly in year 2001, Rauf has a pending Red Corner notice against him in connection with the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu.

When asked how soon would India seek access to the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists in Pakistan, Kumar said, "We will cross the bridge when we get there".

Read: Pathankot attack: Pak probe team reaches airbase amid protests

He said during tomorrow's meeting with the Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which has come to probe the Pathankot terror attack case, NIA will seek details of the investigation carried out by them so far.

Read: Shiv Sena terms NIA's proposed visit to Pakistan as mere 'chai pe charcha'

"After all, we should also know about the probe (conducted by them) as we had handed over a list of requests including identifying some of the phone numbers which the terrorists had called minutes before launching the attack," he said.

JeM terrorists had carried out a terror attack on the intervening night of January 2 on the strategic IAF base in Pathankot.