Pakistan hands over initial findings on Pathankot Airbase terrorist attack to India

India has provided telephone number in Pakistan contacted by the airbase attackers and given other inputs.

Pakistan said on Wednesday it will send a special team to the Pathankot air base in India near the Pakistan border to investigate into last week’s deadly assault.

India has identified Masood Azhar, chief of banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, as the mastermind of the attack.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has created a joint committee of his top government, military and intel officers to investigate the evidence handed over by India. “The investigation agencies were further investigating (leads) pertaining to Pathankot attackers”, it said.

The evidence is said to include some voice recordings and the wireless phone numbers of the terrorists which were followed to Pakistan.

Pakistani news channel ARY News reported today that “some arrests” have been made in this regard, but police did not confirm any arrest related to the Pathankot attack.

“The meeting reiterated that in line with our decision to counter and completely eliminate terrorism, Pakistan would remain engaged with India on this issue”.

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh stated there was no reason to distrust Pakistan when it said it would take stringent action against those responsible for Pathankot incident.

“There is no reason to distrust them [Pakistan] so early”, he said.

Pakistan has said Foreign Secretary-level talks with India are scheduled to take place on January 15.

Ashraf Jehangir Qazi also wrote in the Dawn that many Western analysts believed that the terror attack on the IAF base at Pathankot was “probably planned and supervised from Pakistan by elements with a history of association with the intelligence establishment”. “We now wait that prompt and decisive action”, it had said.

New Delhi on Tuesday continued to remain non-committal on Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s proposed visit to Islamabad on Friday and Saturday for a meeting with his counterpart A A Chaudhry.

“Congress has not said and does not stand for and does not intend to say that the Foreign Secretary level talks be suspended or cancelled”, he emphatically said.