Pakistani JIT reaches Pathankot, visits sanitised areas of IAF base

Mangalore Today News Network

Mar 29, 2016: The Pakistani JIT visits sanitised areas of the IAF base.
   
The JIT will not get to interact with IAF or other defence and security officials and personnel involved in the 80-hour counter-operation by security forces against the terrorists who attacked the airbase in the early hours of January 2.

   
Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT), accompanied by Indian officials, has reached Pathankot.
  
Meanwhile, activists of Punjab’s main Opposition Congress party are staging a protest near the airbase against the visit by the Pakistani investigators. They are carrying black flags and banners. The banners named officials of the Pakistani team, especially those from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence. They are raising slogans like ’Pakistan Murdabad’, ’Bharat Mata ki Jai’, ’Vande Mataram’.
   
Police officials said they have diligently barricaded areas around the IAF facility . "The district police has been informed about the visit and deployments have been done accordingly," a senior police official said.
   
A large police contingent has been deployed in and around Dhangu village where the IAF base is located.
   
Orange and blue coloured tarpaulin can be seen draping the interiors of the strategic facility, in an apparent indication of "visual prohibition" being put in place.
   
An outraged Opposition had on Monday questioned the government’s move to allow Pakistanis into India to probe the Pathankot terror attack even as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the visiting investigators would only go to an isolated "crime" spot and not the entire sensitive airbase. Over 80-hour gunbattle had led to the killing of at least four terrorists and seven security personnel at the airbase.
   
This is the first time that India has allowed Pakistani investigators to probe a terror attack in India blamed on that country. Also, Lt Colonel Ahmed has become the first ISI officer to be officially allowed to visit India.
   
The Punjab Police is escorting the convoy of the Pakistani team which also has ISI’s Lt Col rank officer Tanvir Ahmed, Lahore’s Deputy Director General Intelligence Bureau Mohammad Azim Arshad, Military Intelligence Lt Col Irfan Mirza and Gujaranwala CTD Investigating Officer Shahid Tanveer. There were inputs from the Ministry of Home Affairs about a possible threat to the Pakistan Joint Investigation Team by the Islamic fundamentalist organisations based in Pakistan and their proxies in India.
   
The Pakistani team led by Punjab’s Additional Inspector General of Police, Counter Terrorism Department, Muhammad Tahir Rai landed at Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport in Amritsar and left for Pathankot by road in bullet-proof SUVs amid tight security.
   
The five-member Pakistani probe panel, which includes an official of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), has landed at the Amritsar’s commercial airport.
   
On Monday, the Pakistani probe team was briefed by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi on the findings of its probe into the attack that was allegedly masterminded by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar. It is for the first time that that a Pakistani team has visited the country to probe a terror case.
   
The Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT), accompanied by Indian officials, will on Tuesday head for Pathankot in connection with the probe into the January 2 terror attack at Indian Air Force base.