With no headway made in the probe into the Pathankot terror attack, Pakistan plans to seek more evidence from India, a media report said on Monday, days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the outcome of the investigation into the assault would be made public soon.
A Pakistani government team investigating the Pathankot airbase attack will ask the foreign ministry to seek more evidence from India.
“The team has almost completed its investigation into five cellphone numbers (allegedly used for making calls from Pakistan to India) provided by the Indian government. No further leads were found from these numbers because they were unregistered and had fake identities,” Dawn newspaper quoted a source as saying.
“The probe is not heading further. The team needs more evidence. Therefore, it has written to the government to speak to India and apprise it of the situation and demand more evidence to move forward in investigation here,” he said.
Answering a question about the people, including banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, detained in connection with the Pathankot incident, the source said “Let first more evidence come from India”.Pathankot incident, the source said “Let first more evidence come from India”.
Sharif had formed the six-member investigation team headed by the Additional Inspector General of Punjab’s Counter- Terrorism Department (CTD) in the second week of January to look into India’s allegations that the JeM was behind the January 2 attack.
The team headed by AIG Counter Terror Department, Punjab Rai Tahir has so far held two meetings.
The prime minister told reporters in Lahore on Saturday that the investigation was underway and its findings would be made public.
“Whatever facts come out we will bring them forth before everyone,” he said, adding that Pakistan would go to “any length” to uncover the alleged use of its soil in the Pathankot attack.
“It is our responsibility to uncover if our soil was used in the attack. We will do this and the ongoing investigation will be completed soon,” he said.
Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have not produced before court any of the suspects arrested in connection with the attack over the past two weeks since their detention.
The government has not disclosed the number of suspects detained. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah only confirmed that Maulana Masood Azhar had been taken into “protective custody”, along with some of his “accomplices”.
“He (Masood) is not arrested,” the minister clarified.
India says Masood Azhar was the mastermind of the attack. It alleges that his brother Rauf and five others were also involved in the attack which killed all six terrorists and seven Indian soldiers.
PTI