New Delhi:
The Pakistani JIT today concluded its six-day discussions with NIA on the probe into the Pathankot terror attack even as the visiting officials recorded statements of witnesses and collected DNA report of slain terrorists. On the proposal for an NIA team’s visit to Pakistan, the Joint Investigating Team (JIT) has welcomed it, saying mutually convenient dates will be worked out.
The team was given a detailed presentation on the probe conducted so far and it was taken to the crime scene in Pathankot. It has also been handed over some more documents which included DNA report of the four terrorists killed in the 80-hour gun battle with security forces.
The Pakistani team, headed by Additional Inspector General of Police, Counter Terrorism Department, Muhammad Tahir Rai and including ISI’s Lt Col Tanvir Ahmed, began their day by recording the statements of witnesses in the case, National Investigation Agency (NIA) sources said.
The team arrived in India on March 27. They recorded statements of 16 witnesses, including Superintendent of Police-rank officer of Punjab Salwinder Singh, his jeweller-friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal.
The three were kidnapped by the Pathankot attack perpetrators belonging to the banned Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1.
The Pakistani JIT had asked NIA to hand over swabs of the four terrorists, identified as Nasir Hussain (Punjab province), Abu Bakar (Gujranwala) and Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum (both from Sindh).
However, the Indian anti-terror probe agency handed over to the visitors the DNA report of the terrorists and asked them to match those with their family members, the NIA sources said.
Besides recording the statement of the three, the JIT also spoke to the caretaker of a shrine visited by Singh before he was kidnapped, policemen and residents who spotted the vehicle of the police officer after it was abandoned by the attackers. Statements of doctors who conducted the post-mortem on the bodies were also recorded.
