Pathankot assault: JIT to wrap up probes this week: Fatemi

Investigators expected to visit India this month

ISLAMABAD: Days after the Punjab government formed a team to probe the January 2 attack on the Indian airbase in Pathankot near the border with Pakistan, a senior aide to the prime minister said that investigations are expected to be completed this week.

Tariq Fatemi, special assistant to the prime minister on foreign affairs, told Radio Pakistan on Monday that once investigations on this side are over, Pakistani investigators will visit India to complete the probe.

Seven Indian soldiers were killed when militants stormed the airbase on January 2, with India claiming involvement of Masood Azhar-led militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

The Punjab government had on February 19 lodged an FIR in a Gujranwala police station on the request of the province’s counter-terrorism department. Subsequently, on February 24, it formed a five-member team led by the Additional IG Counter-Terrorism Department Punjab Rai Tahir to probe the matter.

The details of the probe, however, have yet to be revealed.

Fatemi added that investigators are expected to travel to India sometime this month.

Last week, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had said that investigators would visit India in early March.

With the completion of investigations this week, it may help the two hyphenated but hostile countries to fix a date for the crucial foreign secretary level talks.

The parleys were originally scheduled to take place in the middle of January but both sides decided to postpone them apparently due to the Pathankot airbase attack.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2016.