India says Pak team given documents, evidence

Pathankot incident

PATHANKOT: India on Wednesday said that the visiting Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of Pakistan had been provided documents and evidence regarding the Pathankot Airbase attack, NDTV reported. The Indian authorities said that their probe team would also visit Pakistan soon.

According to the report, Pakistan had detained some suspects in the case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said after a meeting with the five-member Pakistani team that had come to investigate the case and visited the airbase.

“The Pakistani team had shared details of their investigations," NIA chief Sharad Kumar said, but he added that details of the detentions could not be shared at this stage, since the information had operational value.

India expected full cooperation from Pakistan, having allowed the team access to all evidence and the attack site in Pathankot. And it was Pakistan's turn to share information regarding its investigation.

"Our discussion with Pakistan was on the basis of reciprocity. The process of handing over evidence to Pakistan started today," said Sanjeev Singh, a senior official of the agency. The evidence India has shared includes phone call intercepts and statements of the witnesses. The Pakistani team, which includes a member of its Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, has also been allowed access to airbase -- retracing the steps of the terrorists and visiting the area where the 80-hour gun battle with them had taken place.

The NIA chief said that the team might be given access to witnesses in connection with attack, in which seven security personnel were killed in the 80-hour operation to flush out the six terrorists.

The team will also be given access to Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh, who was allegedly abducted by the terrorists along with his jeweler friend and cook on January 1. The terrorists had used the hijacked vehicle to reach the airbase.

Pakistan has not contradicted the evidence India presented earlier this week regarding the way the terrorists had infiltrated into India and the group they belonged to. The sources in Pakistan have told NDTV that it is not known if 47-year-old Azhar -- the mastermind of January's terror attack at the air base -- is still in Pakistan. Pakistani officials had earlier said that he had skipped the country.