Islamabad: Pakistani investigators are already in India to collect evidence regarding the Pathankot terror attack, say Pakistani media reports .
India had alleged that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a banned militant outfit, was responsible for attack on an airbase in the Punjab on January 2 which left seven security personnel dead. New Delhi asked Islamabad to move against the perpetrators of the assault.
Pakistan had arrested four suspects in connection with the phone numbers mentioned in the first information report.
The investigators examined the SIM registration and calls data of the suspected numbers. The mobile phone companies were asked to provide details of the people using those phone numbers. Pakistan later said that no record of the cell phone numbers provided by India were found.
Islamabad had said it would send investigators to Pathankot to collect more evidence regarding the attack as India insisted to include JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar in the First Information Report (FIR).
Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) chief Mohammed Tahir Rai, who heads the high-powered Joint Investigation Team (JIT), has reached India along with some other officials, Pakistani media reports said.
The JIT formed on the orders of Nawaz Sharif formally started work last week, and its first meeting was convened in Lahore to discuss the case in detail.
Interestingly, the Punjab home department also re-notified the JIT, ordering the investigators to submit the interim probe report to the court within two weeks.
It was not known if there were any changes or the new notification retained the same members as that of the earlier JIT, which was constituted by the Pakistani interior ministry in mid-January.
Besides Tahir Rai, the previous team included Intelligence Bureau Lahore Director Azeem Arshad, CTD Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Additional Inspector General Salahuddin Khan, Federal Investigation Agency Director Usman Anwar, and two intelligence officers –Brigadier Noman Saeed and Lt. Colonel Irfan Mirza.
A Pakistani government official confirmed that Additional Inspector General of police, Tahir Rai, had arrived in India, adding the move was being kept secret on both sides of the border.
“What I can confirm is that Tahir Rai is in India right now. We can’t say how many other officials are accompanying him,” the official said.
When asked when exactly the team left for India and for how many days they would stay there, the official declined to comment.
