Taking the stand that it has “no independent assessment” of the Pathankot terrorist attack, the United States has said that would expect Pakistan to hold a “thorough, complete, fair and transparent” investigation. It, however, refrained from setting any deadline for completing the probe or taking follow-up action.
“We obviously want to see all perpetrators brought to justice – brought to justice,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday, but added in the same breath: “We know that that can take a long time. It took an awful long time to bring Usama bin ladin to justice, but we did. So it can be hard.”
Kirby, who was pressed on the question of confidence in a Pakistani investigation given that Islamabad is still dragging its feet on follow-up action over the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, said: “Well, we certainly look forward to and expect and want to see a thorough, complete, fair, and transparent investigative process. And we will have to let it work through.”
“It’s not for us to ascribe a timeline to somebody else’s investigation. Obviously, in all investigations, you want it to be thorough and you want it to be complete. And clearly, we all like them to be done as quick as possible and transparently discussed when it’s complete,” Kirby said, adding: “It’s more important to us, as it is in our own investigative issues here in the United States, that it be a good, solid, thoughtful, and comprehensive investigation, not that it be done by a certain timeline.”
At the same time, Kirby conceded that he has no idea how long the Pakistan Government is going to take or the degree to which it intends to be transparent once it completes the probe.
Speaking of Pakistan’s condemnation of the Pathankot attack and assertions that it would not discriminate between terrorist groups while conducting counterterrorism operations, Kirby went on to say: “They’ve been very open about that, and we look forward to seeing the results of their investigation.”
“We continue to not only encourage a sense of aggressiveness in CT (counterterrorism) operations by Pakistan and by other regional powers, but we have expressed and will continue to express our willingness to support those operations as required or as deemed fit by those nations,” he said.
Asked about former White House official and CIA analyst Bruce Riedel’s assessment that ISI was behind the near-simultaneous attack on the IAF base in Pathankot and the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, the spokesman said: “I’m not in a position to confirm the veracity of his conclusions.”
“I don’t have an independent assessment of who was behind this attack. A, it just happened two days ago; B, it’s being investigated by the Pakistanis. They’ve condemned it, we condemned it. let’s let their investigation move forward and we’ll see where it goes,” Kirby said.