Even as India awaits “concrete” action from Pakistan on the Pathankot terror attack, officials probing the incident in Pakistan have said that current evidence given to them by India is not enough and they need more “leads” from India.
News reports from lahore claimed that the six-member special investigation team set up by the Nawaz Sharif Government has written to its Foreign Ministry to seek more “leads” from India to move forward. “The ball is back in India’s court again as we need more evidence to move forward in the probe,” a source in the investigation team said.
“The team has almost completed its investigation into five cellphone numbers (allegedly used for making calls from Pakistan to India) provided by the Indian Government. No further leads were found from these numbers because they were unregistered and had fake identities,” the source said.
“The probe is not heading further. The team needs more evidence. Therefore, it has written to the Government to speak to India and apprise it of the situation and demand more evidence to move forward in the investigation here,” he said.
There was no clarity on banned Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar’s detention. The source said, “First let more evidence come from India.”
The demand for more “leads” comes at a time when India is awaiting outcome of the initial probe launched by Pakistan on evidence given by New Delhi. Incidentally, Sharif had on Saturday said that the investigation was underway and its findings would be made public soon.
“Whatever facts come out we will bring them forth before everyone,” Sharif had said, adding that Pakistan would go to “any length” to uncover the alleged use of its soil in the attack. “It is our responsibility to uncover if our soil was used in the attack. We will do this and the ongoing investigation will be completed soon,” he said.
The delay in probe outcome is also likely to impact India-Pakistan talks that were to begin with the meeting of Foreign Secretaries. The talks, scheduled for January 15 have been deferred after India decided to wait and watch how Pakistan responds to the terror attack evidence.
Sharif had formed the six-member investigation team headed by Additional Inspector General of Punjab’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Rai Tahir in the second week of January to look into India’s allegations that the JeM was behind the attack. The team has so far held two meetings. Sharif had said the Pakistani team would also visit India to collect further information on the attack.
With almost a month over now after the incident, India is not happy with progress report from Islamabad as even a case has not been registered by Pakistan to carry out arrests and detentions. Already there are contradicting reports on Masood’s preventive detention. Besides there have been reports claiming that the “sealed” offices of JeM are functioning through backdoor entry. But India has decided to show patience and wait for some more time before reacting.