Pakistani probe team to hold meetings with NIA in Delhi today

Over the next three days, the five-member joint investigation team (JIT) will divide its time between Delhi and Punjab to gather evidence related to the Pathankot airbase attack.

Over the next three days, the five-member joint investigation team (JIT) will divide its time between Delhi and Punjab to gather evidence related to the Pathankot airbase attack. Two Pakistan intelligence officers, including one from ISI, and three investigators have been given a seven-day visa.

The joint investigation team from Pakistan will sit through a 90-minute presentation by the NIA on their findings so far. The team will also examine the Punjab police superintendent who was kidnapped by the militants before the attack in January. (Sameer Sehgal/HT File Photo)

The team is scheduled to meet National Investigative Agency (NIA) officials looking into the attack at their headquarters in central Delhi at 11am on Monday. The JIT will be given a 90-minute presentation by Indian officials. However, there is no estimate on when the day’s meetings will end.

Early on Tuesday morning, teams from both agencies will take a special BSF flight to Amritsar from where they will board a chopper for Pathankot. There, NIA has lined up 17 witnesses, not including security personnel or IAF officers, who will depose before the Pakistani officials. JIT may also visit Bamiyal, the border village from where the militants are suspected to have entered. The officials are expected to return to Delhi by nightfall.

On day three – Wednesday, both sides will hold more discussions at NIA headquarters. The JIT officials are likely to speak to Punjab SP Salwinder Singh, his cook and a friend who were abducted by militants, if they haven’t been able to on Monday. The examination though will not be carried out directly by the team; instead questions will be handed to the NIA who will in turn get responses from the three.

The NIA had asked the JIT to seek evidence through a judicial route in order to make it admissible in a Pakistani court. However, in absence of a letter rogatory, a request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance, India hopes that Pakistan will conduct a serious inquiry as a show of good will.