Pathankot Attack: Holes in 'staged' claim; officials question Pak news report

New Delhi: India on Tuesday refused to comment officially on news reports from Pakistan suggesting its probe team that visited Pathankot to probe the terror attack had concluded the strike was orchestrated by New Delhi. But officials here pointed out that Pakistan had virtually admitted the attackers were its nationals when it used a domestic law for such cases to legally support the visit by its probe team. The response marked a balance the Narendra Modi government is trying to strike between appearing soft on Pakistan and reacting strongly to news reports quoting anonymous sources.

Officially, the government said it would react only to what national security adviser Ajit Doval is formally told by his Pakistan counterpart Naseer Khan Janjua. Janjua, officials said, had not communicated any displeasure over the visit by the probe team from his country. The joint investigation team (JIT) from Pakistan visited New Delhi and the Pathankot air base. But English daily Pakistan Today has claimed in a report that the JIT would tell the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the encounter with terrorists in Pathankot was "staged". The JIT, the news report said, had concluded that the confrontation between security forces and the terrorists lasted barely a few hours - and not three days as Indian officials have insisted. India had not been able to provide evidence the terrorists entered from Pakistan, the news report said, and did not cooperate with the visiting JIT. India had prior information about the attack, the JIT concluded, according to the news report. But Indian officials have insisted that New Delhi fully cooperated with the Pakistan team. In a statement on Friday, National Investigation Agency director-general Sharad Kumar said the JIT was taken to "the scene of crime in Pathankot and shown locations where the terrorists infiltrated and subsequently hid, as well as where the encounter took place". Also Read: Pak JIT dubs Pathankot attack as 'drama staged to malign Pakistan', leak report alleges The NIA, leading the investigation into the attack, also took the Pakistan team to the spot near the border where the terrorists hijacked a car and killed its driver, Kumar said. The JIT was given access to 16 witnesses - including superintendent of police Salwinder Singh who had claimed his car, too, was hijacked and used by the terrorists - Kumar said. The NIA had also shared with the Pakistan team names and addresses of the terrorists and details of phone conversations they had with handlers in the neighbouring country, Kumar said. To bolster their argument, Indian officials on Tuesday also cited the law under which the Pakistan team made the trip. The Pakistan team had said it visited under Section 188 of that country's Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). That section deals with cases "when a citizen of Pakistan commits an offence at any place without and beyond the limits of Pakistan", according to Pakistan's CrPC. The use of that section by Pakistan to send its JIT represents an admission, officials said, that its own nationals were involved in the Pathankot attack.