Joint probe ordered after Pakistan arrests

Pakistani authorities carried out raids at Gujranwala, Jhelum and Bahawalpur districts and arrested some persons, intelligence officials said today. 

“Probe has been going to ascertain if they were involved in the attack or some of them facilitated it,” they said. 

The arrests led Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to order a Joint Investigation Team of IB, Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Federal Investigation Agency and Police to thoroughly probe the Pathankot attack links to Pakistan. 

According to media report, Sharif’s decision to form the JIT came after the leads provided by India which has linked the foreign secretary-level talks, scheduled for January 15, to Islamabad’s decisive action on the Pathankot attack. 

The decision to form the JIT, comprising officials from Intelligence Bureau (IB), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI), was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Sharif recently, The Express Tribune said. 

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, NSA Lt-Gen (retd) Nasser Khan Janjua, PM’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar attended the meeting. 

Sharif “is taking an active role in getting to the bottom of the Pathankot incident,” a Prime Minister’s House source was quoted as saying by the paper. 

“He also discussed the issue with army chief Gen Raheel Sharif and took him on board about the decision to form a JIT,” the source said adding, “This investigation will be a major test of the prime minister to move Pakistan-India relationship forward and to break the cycle of off-again on-again talks between the two neighbours.” 

India has provided telephone number in Pakistan contacted by the airbase attackers and given other inputs while asking Islamabad to take punitive actions against the handlers and possible mastermind.