External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also dismissed as “baseless” the allegations that India was behind an attack at a university at Charsadda in Pakistan, in which 25 people, mostly students, were massacred by heavily-armed suicide attackers on Wednesday. “The issue is also not been raised officially with us by Pakistan,” he said.
Maintaining that the National Security Advisors (NSAs) and Foreign Secretaries of both the countries were in touch with each other, he said a meeting between S Jaishankar and his counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary will take place on a “mutually convenient date” but refused to put any timeframe.
On the visit of a Pakistan SIT in connection with the terror attack, he said the government has not got any information after the first official statement by the Pakistan government on a possible visit by an investigation team here and was awaiting for a “firm proposal”.
“In principle, we have welcomed the decision of Pakistan government to consider sending an SIT team... rest is matter of details. What they can see? Where they can go? What will be terms of reference? Those need to be worked out by agencies on both the sides provided the Pakistan government firms up its decision to send the team,” he said.
He was asked about comments by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar that a JIT proposed by Pakistan will not be allowed to visit the Pathankot airbase – the site of the terror attack. “The two NSAs have not met but they have been in touch. We continue to closely follow on the progress in the investigation in Pakistan on the Pathakot terrorist attack... We continue to expect robust action by Pakistan against all the perpetrators,” he said.
Reiterating that India has given actionable intelligence to Pakistan, he said: “We are looking for a credible and comprehensive action to bring all the perpetrators of Pathankot terror attack to justice.”
Asked if the attacks in Pathankot and near the Indian missions in Afghanistan were part of a coordinated planning by a terror group, he said it would be difficult to say but one thing was clear that terrorism has emerged as the greatest challenge. The distinction between good terrorism and bad terrorism should be removed, he added.
In Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said: “The Foreign Secretary-level talks between Pakistan and India are going to be held in near future and both sides are in touch on that count.”
NIA searches Salwinder’s house, other premises
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday conducted searches at six places, including the office and residence of senior Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh and his friends in connection with its probe into the Pathankot terror attack.
The NIA, after securing search warrants from a designated court here, carried out searches at the residence of Singh, who is posted as Assistant Commandant of the 75th Punjab Armed Police after being shunted out as SP (Headquarters), Gurdaspur.
Besides, his office-cum-residence was searched in Gurdaspur, where the NIA team also searched the residences of his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma, a woman friend and the officer’s cook Madan Gopal.
Some recoveries have been made which are being analysed, official sources said.
Singh was travelling with Gopal and Verma when their vehicle was hijacked by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1. Later, Verma was left on the road with a slit throat, while the other two were let off after some time. There was no clarity about the sequence of events that had happened on the night when the three were kidnapped, sources said.
The development came after Singh was interrogated by the NIA for several days in Delhi. Singh was subjected to a lie-detector test on Wednesday and examined by experts, including a behavioural analyst and psychoanalysts, to scientifically assess his personality. The NIA is questioning Singh to ascertain the sequence of events that took place after he was allegedly kidnapped by the terrorists.
Singh came under the scanner after he said he and his cook were released, whereas Verma was left bleeding midway by the terrorists.
Also, his claim that the incident occurred when he was returning from a shrine, which he often visited, was found to be allegedly incorrect after the NIA questioned the caretaker of the dargah, Somraj, who told the agency that Singh had visited the place that day for the first time.