Pakistan moving in right direction on Pathankot attack probe: India

Spokesman says India to welcome Pakistani investigation team; Pak, India foreign secretaries’ talks postponed ‘briefly’

ISLAMABAD: India said on Thursday that Pakistan was moving in the right direction on the Pathankot airbase attack investigations and it will welcome the Pakistani probe team for more investigations.

Pakistan and India also announced after mutual consultations that they are briefly postponing their foreign secretary-level talks previously scheduled for today (Friday) in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase terrorist attack. However, no new dates have been suggested, though Islamabad says this would be “in the very near future”.

These announcements were made by the spokesmen at the Foreign Office and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

“Pakistan and India have agreed to reschedule the foreign secretary-level talks in the very near future,” the Foreign Office Spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said, after both the foreign secretaries and the two national security advisers spoke on the phone.

In New Delhi, the spokesman at the Ministry of External Affairs commented, “The talks between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India have been rescheduled with mutual consent of both the countries.” He added that the decision to reschedule the talks had been made mutually, and was not a unilateral decision by India.

That both countries are engaging with confidence and displaying maturity (despite a war-like scenario being built by the Indian media) could be gauged from the fact that probably for the first time, Pakistani security personnel will be allowed to enter an Indian airbase at Pathankot, after New Delhi accepted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s offer to send an investigation team to probe the scene of the crime.

“We look forward to the visit of the Pakistani Special Investigation Team (SIT). We will extend it our full cooperation,” the spokesman at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said. Modalities of the SIT’s visit, their mandate and access to information will be decided at a later date most probably by the two NSAs. Final decisions to reschedule the foreign secretary-level talks and accepting a visit from an investigation team from Pakistan were taken after high level meetings in Islamabad on Wednesday chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and in India on the return from Paris of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Thursday afternoon with the prime minister.

Though the two NSAs have been in touch on the phone, no meeting between them has taken place. The News had spoken to the NSA who was in Islamabad while the Indian NSA was in Paris.

However, at the Foreign Office briefing when questioned if the government had arrested the head of Jaish-e-Muhammad, Masood Azhar, the spokesman said that he was unaware of the arrest ofthe Jaish leader, who has been accused by India of being the mastermind behind the Pathankot attacks. He said, "I am not aware of any such arrest. I don't have anything else apart from the statement issued by the Prime Minister Office."

Security officials have told the media that he is under ‘protective custody’ and not ‘arrested’.

India has also welcomed the Wednesday’s statement from the Prime Minister's Office which had said, “Considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements reportedly linked to the Pathankot incident. Based on the initial investigations in Pakistan, and the information provided, several individuals belonging to Jaish-e-Muhammad have been apprehended. The offices of the organisation are also being traced and sealed. Further investigations are underway.”

On Thursday, commenting on this, the Indian spokesman remarked, "Action taken against Jaish-e-Muhammad is an important and positive first step. We have given actionable intelligence to Pakistan regarding all people associated with the Pathankot attack.” The Indian foreign ministry spokesperson expressed the hope that Pakistan will continue its investigations into the airbase attack and bring all perpetrators to justice.