In its bid to unravel the terror pattern and the larger conspiracy behind the terror attacks on Defence assets along the Indo-Pak border, NIA teams on Tuesday visited Samba and Kathua areas of Jammu region where strikes similar to the Pathankot airbase had taken place last year.
A team of the agency visited the Army camp in Samba on the Jammu-Pathankot Highway, where two terrorists had opened fire on March 21 last year. Both the terrorists were shot dead by security forces, while three persons including an Army major were injured in the gun battle.
Another team also visited Kathua, where Rajbagh Police Station was attacked by a group of terrorists a day before. Three security personnel, two terrorists and as many civilians were killed in the encounter.
Sources said the NIA teams spotted “glaring” similarities in the modus operandi of the terrorists, who attacked installations in Kathua and Samba and those who mounted the brazen assault on Pathankot airbase on the intervening night of January 1 and 2 this year.
Meanwhile, the agency questioned SP Salwinder Singh for the second day on Tuesday in connection with the ongoing probe into the Pathankot airbase attack. Salwinder had claimed that he was abducted by the terrorists before attacking the airbase. Salwinder has not given satisfactory answer to the interrogator as to why he maintained four mobile phones and provided two phones to his cook Madan Gopal.
The agency is likely to confront the SP with his cook, who has been summoned to the NIA headquarters for questioning on Wednesday.
The NIA has also asked mobile service providers to submit details about the calls made using three particular towers which give coverage to the IAF base in Pathankot, after initial probe indicated that the terrorists had entered the restricted area in the morning of January 1. The agency is also likely to look into lapses if any on the part of the local police in tracking the location of the mobile phone snatched from the SP. The sleuths are also seeking to ascertain whether the calls to Pakistan from this particular mobile number were made by the terrorists after gaining entry into the airbase.
The NIA has also summoned Somraj, caretaker of Panj Peer Dargah in Punjab, which Singh had claimed to have visited before he was abducted by the terrorists, who attacked the Pathankot base hours later.
The shrine is located a few kilometres from Bamiyal, the village from where the terrorists were suspected to have infiltrated India before mounting the attack.
Somraj’s statement that Salwinder Singh had came to the shrine for the first time before the attack and that his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and his cook Madan Gopal had visited the dargah twice the same day had raised eyebrows as the police officer had earlier claimed he was a regular visitor to the place.