Pathankot incident: questions arise over Indian proofs

Islamabad

Serious questions have arisen over the proofs given by India on the Pathankot incident. The question that has perplexed the authorities in Islamabad is why the Indians have not shared concrete, trustworthy and actionable intelligence with Pakistan. 

“When the French intelligence agencies took so long to identify the network of Paris attackers and neutralize them, we wonder how the Indians and their media immediately identified the attackers as belonging to Jaish and how other details were leaked out. It seems it was all written down much before the incident and then fed to the media immediately as the assault began,” says a regional expert. 

According to reports, India has provided two cell phone numbers to authorities in Pakistan but both the numbers are closed. Analysts here say after all terrorism incidents in India, it has become a routine for the Indian media and political leaders to blame Pakistan but the quality of evidence given is always poor. It should be noted that WikiLeaks had quoted former US ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson as writing to the State Department that “India had presented insufficient evidence against the senior leaders of now proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba” following the Mumbai attacks. 

“One may ask to whom those two closed cell phone numbers belong to which have been provided by India to Pakistan. One may also ask why the terrorists felt the need to contact their families and so called ustaad in Pakistan before and during the Pathankot operation. And is there any doubt that the so-called recorded phone calls and subsequent conversations were fabricated? The list goes on and on.”

Regional experts here believe the Pathankot incident was a drama that was certainly stage-managed to sabotage the Pak-India dialogue. 

"Earlier, there have been several such incidents where India blamed Pakistan without solid evidence. With strange turns and twists, now there is one more," the regional analyst added.