India to gather proof to show Pak-based terror groups' hand

Telephone call records, DNA samples of slain terrorists and contact details of their handlers will form parts of the evidence collected by Indian security agencies to pinpoint Pakistan’s involvement in the Pathankot terror attack.

Investigators also said one of the terrorists killed in the operation was wearing a shoe manufactured by Pakistani company ‘Epcot’, as security agencies are trying to recover more tell-tale signs of the terrorists’ links with the neighbouring country.

Official sources said the government will be sending a letter rogatory to Pakistan along with DNA samples of slain terrorists, their phone call details, the numbers of handlers based in that country and other information to help nab the mastermind of the crime.

Intelligence agencies had intercepted at least four telephone calls made by the terrorists using phones snatched from people whom they had abducted while trying to sneak into the air base.

One of the telephone calls was made to a mother and investigators believe that Pakistani authorities could use this to track down the family of the terrorist. Sources said India would urge Pakistan to collect voice samples of handlers and the mother of a slain terrorist to establish the link of Pakistanis involved in the attack.

Sharad Kumar, Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) who will be visiting Pathankot on Wednesday, said the investigators would seek Pakistan’s help  in joining the threads once the identity of people contacted by the perpetrators is established. Kumar would also meet the NIA team investigating the case.  Acknowledging that solving the conspiracy behind the attack is a “very big challenge”, he said: “I can’t say whether the ISI is involved or not. Let us see what happens after our probe is completed.”

However, he added that there is little doubt that the terrorists were from Pakistan.
The NIA had on Monday registered three cases in connection with the terror strike, including the murder of a taxi driver by suspected terrorists, kidnapping of a superintendent of police- rank officer and an attack on the IAF base on the intervening night of January 1 and 2.