Islamabad: New Delhi failed to provide evidence to Islamabad’s Joint Investigation Team, visiting India to probe the Pathankot attack, to prove their allegation that Pakistan based militants stormed the Air Force base, sources close to the team said.
The JIT members visited Pathankot airbase on March 29 where Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials briefed and showed them the route from where the attackers stormed the airbase.
The investigators were allowed to enter the military airbase from the narrow adjacent route instead of the main entrance and the duration of their visit was just 55 minutes, enough to take a mere walk through the airbase, Geo News quoted sources as saying, adding that the JIT could not collect evidence in this limited time.
However, the team was informed about the negligence of the Indian Border Security Force, sources added.
It was said that at the time of the attack the BSF personnel were sleeping even though the organisation had been alerted about a possible attack 48 hours earlier, sources said.
Meanwhile, Indians visiting Pakistan will face “strict monitoring” by the interior ministry, a media report quoting a source from the ministry said on Saturday.
The interior ministry has directed all four provinces — Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — to monitor the activities of foreigners, especially Indians, who visit Pakistan, Geo TV quoted the source as saying.
The ministry has also directed Gilgit Baltistan and Pakistan administered Kashmir to follow the new orders.
The new orders came days after Pakistan arrested Kulbhushan Jadhav, an Indian, in Balochistan.
According to Pakistani officials, Jadhav allegedly confessed to “fuelling” the Baloch separatist movement and “sabotage” the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.
Pakistan alleged Jadhav was a RAW agent. The Indian government has denied he was linked to the government in any way.
Days after Islamabad formally requested Tehran for assistance in uncovering India’s subversive activities against Pakistan, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said nothing can come between Pakistan and Iran’s “brotherly” relationship.
“Pakistan and Iran are tied by decades-long religious, social, cultural and political bonds. Nothing can come in the way of our brotherly relations,” he was quote by local media as saying during a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost at the Punjab House.
According to an official statement, the minister and the envoy discussed matters pertaining to Islamabad and Tehran’s bilateral relationship, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani’s recent visit to Pakistan and the assistance the interior ministry has sought regarding the recent arrest of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav in Balochistan.
On Thursday, the interior ministry sent a communiqué to the Iranian ambassador, requesting Tehran to arrest and hand over Jadhav’s accomplice who, like him, also works for India’s Research and Analysis Wing, and to provide detailed information about the spy’s visits to Iran and people he and his partner contacted there.
During the meeting, Nisar and Honardoost expressed satisfaction over President Rowhani’s recent visit, the statement said.
“The momentum created by the recent high level visit should be fully utilised for further deepening of Pakistan-Iran relations in all possible areas,” it quoted the interior minister as saying. “We need to build on the gains of the past and work hand in hand to overcome our shared challenges and achieve common objectives for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries.”
The Iranian ambassador assured the minister that the government of Iran will extend full cooperation on all issues that ensure security and development in Pakistan and Iran. He said that good relations between the two countries should result in tangible improvement in bilateral trade and developmental projects.
