A day after Pakistan backtracked on its promise to allow the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to visit that country to probe the Pathankot airbase attack case as a reciprocal measure to the visit of their Joint Investigation Team (JIT) here, the NIA has secured non-bailable arrest warrants from a court against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother Abdul Rauf and two others for allegedly conspiring to hit the IAF base.
Meanwhile, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval in a telephonic conversation with his Pakistani counterpart, NK Janjua asked Islamabad to distance itself from Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit's statements or India will toughen its stand.
Earlier, a special NIA court in Mohali issued the ‘open-ended non-bailable warrant’ against main handlers Kashif Jaan and Shaid latif besides masterminds Azhar and Rauf for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy with other JeM terrorists for attacking the IAF base.
The special court issued the arrest warrant after weighing the evidence presented by NIA before it, which included telephonic conversation between the terrorists and Jaish handlers like Jaan and latif.
A video of Rauf was also presented before the court. In the video, which was uploaded on a website being hosted from Pakistan, Rauf had claimed responsibility for the attack and complimented his “boys” for it. The video has since been removed and the website has also disappeared from the cyber network.
The latest Indian move comes after Pakistan resorted to the age-old tactics of shielding and supporting terror groups based on its soil.
Apart from seeking China’s support in blocking the Indian bid at the United Nations to ban and designate Azhar as an international terrorist, Pakistan is also determined not to probe its nationals involved in the brazen attack planned and masterminded from its soil.
By not allowing the NIA team’s visit there, Pakistan is also seeking to hinder the ongoing probe into the case in which sufficient prima facie materials to nail Pakistan’s links have been gathered here.
The NIA has already sought voice samples of Azhar and three others from the JIT
which came to India for carrying out a probe into the Pathankot terror attack.
The non-bailable warrant will be sent to Interpol. India had built a strong case for proscribing Azhar as terrorist at the UN but the move was vetoed by China.
An Interpol Red Corner notice is already pending against Azhar for being allegedly involved in the conspiracy behind attacks on Parliament and Jammu & Kashmir State Assembly.
Similarly an Interpol Red Corner Notice is pending against Rauf in connection with the IC-814 hijacking case of 1999.
Official sources said Pakistan apparently backtracked from its promise to allow a team of Indian investigators to visit there to probe the Pathankot plot after finding that NIA has enough evidence to nail ISI’s links with terrorists involved in it.
The NIA had given the JIT during its five-day trip to India critical evidence on Pakistani handlers of the terrorists who carried out the January 2 attack.
The JIT was given full transcript of the telephonic conversations between the terrorists and their Pakistani handlers along with their identity. The NIA gave to JIT the links of Pakistani officials, believed to be ISI personnel, with the handlers of the terrorists, the sources said.
The JIT was also provided with electronic and forensic evidence regarding the slain terrorists’ Pakistani links, name of the terrorists and other critical evidence.
The JIT was given concrete proof that Azhar’s brother Rauf was in constant touch with the terrorists and was giving them necessary instructions during the three-day carnage at the IAF base.
“The JIT was completely surprised over the evidence the NIA had gathered as proof of the Pakistani links of the terrorists. They realised that their game is up. The sudden turn around on the promise of allowing an NIA team to visit Pakistan could be the result of that,” an official said.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday discussed with top officials, including National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, the security situation in the country, including the denial of permission the NIA team to visit Pakistan.
Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, chiefs of different Intelligence agencies and other senior officials attended the meeting during which strategies to expose Pakistan’s continued support to terror groups through state machineries was discussed. The meet is also learnt to have dwelt on checking any possible terrorist attack sponsored by Pakistan.
India has complained to Pakistan about the slow pace of probe in the Parliament attack case and Azhar being given a free hand to continue with his anti-India rhetoric. Islamabad has not heeded to India’s demands to bring to book Azhar and other JeM top brass.
In the meantime, NIA said that after posting the pictures of the four dead terrorists on its official website, more information was coming from across the world which included many people from Pakistan who were eager to share details pertaining to the slain terrorists.
NIA has identified Pakistanis Nasir Hussain (Punjab province), Abu Bakar, (Gujranwala), Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum (both from Sindh) who attacked the Pasthankot airbase.
The strategic base was attacked by banned JeM terrorists during the intervening night of January one and two in which seven security personnel were killed. Four bodies of terrorists were recovered from the encounter site which lasted for nearly 80 hours.