Pak offers cooperation with India

With New Delhi toughening its stand on future course of its engagements with Islamabad in the wake of terror-strikes at Indian Air Force Base at Pathankot in Punjab; Pakistan on Monday stated that it was working on the leads provided by India to act against the plotters of the attack.

Islamabad offered to cooperate with New Delhi to bring the plotters of the attack to justice after India indicated that it may not restart its stalled dialogue with Pakistan without getting an explanation from the government of the neighbouring country on the terrorist attacks on Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab and Indian consulate at Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.

Kabul also joined New Delhi on Monday to point fingers at Pakistan for the strikes in Pathankot and Mazar-e-Sharif, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President M Ashraf Ghani referring to both as “cross-border terrorist attacks.

“In line with Pakistan’s commitment to effectively counter and eradicate terrorism, the government is in touch with the Indian government and is working on the leads provided by it,” Qazi M Khalilullah, official spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan Government, said in a statement issued in Islamabad.

The statement came after Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval shared with his Pakistani counterpart Naseer Khan Janjua details of the calls and transcripts of the conversations between the terrorists, who attacked the IAF base in Pathankot early Saturday, and their handlers based in the neighbouring country. 

The capture of one of the terrorists, who attacked the Consulate General of India at Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan, alive by the soldiers of the Afghan National Security Force also put pressure on Pakistan. Sources told Deccan Herald preliminary investigation by National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan and grilling of the captured terrorist indicated that the attack had been planned by “elements in Pakistan”.

The twin attacks cast a shadow over India-Pakistan parleys, which were set to be resumed as “Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue” with a meeting between foreign secretaries of the two neighbouring countries scheduled to be held in Islamabad on January 15. New Delhi has not yet called off Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad for the meeting with his Pakistani counterpart A A Chaudhry. Officials, however, said in New Delhi that India would go ahead with its engagement with Pakistan only if Doval received a positive response from Janjua, National Security Advisor of Pakistan Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif.

A meeting between Doval and Janjua was anyway expected to follow the talks between the two foreign secretaries. In the wake of the twin terrorist attacks at Pathankot and Mazar-e-Sharif, New Delhi may also ask Islamabad to schedule the meeting between the NSAs before the foreign secretaries meet.

New Delhi was not in favour of any knee-jerk reaction, even after suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists from Pakistan crossed over to India and launched the attack on the IAF base in Punjab early Saturday. But the attack on Consulate General of India at Mazar-e-Sharif late at night on Sunday prompted Modi Government to toughen its position.