NIA summons Punjab SP for questioning, collects footprints

The  National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday issued summons to Punjab SP Salwinder Singh, who was allegedly abducted by terrorists involved in the Pathankot attack, and asked him to appear before it on Monday for a detailed interrogation. The probe agency has picked up some footprints in the fields of a border village and the Indian Air Force (IAF) base here and sent them to central forensic lab for matching.

NIA teams have fanned out to various areas in Pathankot and adjoining Gurdaspur district for collecting evidence related to the terror strike at the IAF base on the intervening night of January 1 and 2, official sources said.

Sources said summons have been ssued to Salwinder Singh, Assistant Commandant of 75th battalion of the Punjab Armed Police, as some discrepancies were found in his statement recorded by the NIA and the Punjab Police. The sources did not rule out the possibility of subjecting him to lie detector test.

Singh, along with his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal, were allegedly kidnapped by terrorists on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 before they entered the Pathankot IAF base and carried out a terror strike on the following intervening night, in which seven security personnel were killed. 

Singh was recently shunted as SP (headquarters) of Gurdaspur following allegation of breach of discipline.

The NIA has also picked up some footprints from a field near Bamiyal village on the Indo-Pak border as well as from the site of encounter at the air base, the sources said, adding that the same have been sent to CFSL Chandigarh for matching as this would help in understanding the route for infiltration used by the terrorists.

NIA Director General Sharad Kumar on Friday called on Home Minister Rajnath Singh and gave him a detailed briefing on the investigations carried out so far. The NIA has also sought the call details of Ikagar Singh, the taxi driver who was killed by the terrorists. It has also sought the location of mobile towers through which the signals for those calls were routed. The agency is also probing Ikagar Singh's credientials. 

The NIA has registered three cases in connection with the terror strike at Pathankot IAF base. The first case pertains to Salwinder Singh's abduction and the second for the killing of the taxi driver. Both the cases were registered at the Narot Jaimal Singh Police Station in Pathankot district. The third and the main case, registered at Police Station Division No. 2 Pathankot, relates to the terrorist attack at the Air Force Station.

A 20-member team of the NIA, led by an Inspector General-rank officer, has been camping at Pathankot since January 2 to supervise the ongoing investigations. An SP-rank officer has been appointed as the Chief Investigating Officer of the case.

The NIA has registered the case under various sections of the IPC, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the Arms Act against unknown persons, sources said.

The Pathankot IAF facility, located near Pakistan border, is the base for MiG-21 fighter planes and MI-25 attack helicopters of the Air Force. 

The NIA said body tissues of the six terrorists have been preserved for DNA sampling after their post-mortmem was conducted on Thursday. The investigating teams also picked up DNA samples from both the vehicles used by the terrorists and these have been sent for foresnic examination. "Similarly, the footprints suspected to belong to the terrorists have been lifted by forensic experts from Bamihal village (in Pathankot) in border areas and from within the airforce station an sent to CFSL for examination," the agency said in a statement. 

It said all the arms and ammunition used by the terrorists in the attack have been seized. "These include AK series rifles, pistols, grenades and assorted ammunition. Other articles found on the body of the militants and strewn around at the crime scene and suspected to be belonging to the terrorists have been seized," it said. Other items seized by NIA teams include food articles and medicines that were carried by the six terrorists even as they are scouring the IAF station area to "trace the evidence left behind by terrorists." 

The samples of terrorists' nails, teeth and bones as also the fingertips have been collected for DNA tests, according to a doctor who conducted post-mortem on them. "Their (terrorists) physique was normal. They were not very tall and not very short. Their height can be 5 feet 6 inches to maximum of 5 feet 9 inches," Pathankot's Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Bhupinder Singh said.

Four of the six terrorists could be in the age group of 20 to 30 years, he added. Bodies of two other terrorists were completely burnt. Autopsy on the terrorists' bodies was conducted amid tight security on Thursday. The bodies bore multiple bullet injuries, he said. Six terrorists were eliminated by the security forces  at the Air base last Saturday.