JOIN USIndia blames Pak Army for Pathankot attack
India on Tuesday virtually indicted the Pakistan Army for supporting the “non-state actors”, who had carried out the January 2-4 terror attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab.
“The full details will come out of the investigation being conducted by the National Investigation Agency. But some non-state actors of Pakistan are involved in it (the attack on the IAF base at Pathankot). This much is at least true that no non-state actor there (in Pakistan) can function smoothly without taking support from them (Pakistan Army),” Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said in Rajya Sabha.
He was responding to a question from Shiv Sena MP, Sanjay Raut, whether the terrorists, who had carried out attack at Pathankot, had been supported by the Pakistan Army.
The defence minister’s remark came ahead of the proposed visit of Pakistani investigators to India in connection with the probe into the attack.
Six terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) crossed over from Pakistan to India and carried out the attack in the IAF base, killing a civilian and seven security personnel before being gunned down.
Parrikar’s remark also came close on the heels of first official confirmation from Islamabad that the JeM founder Moulana Masood Azhar had been placed under police custody in Pakistan after New Delhi had accused him of masterminding the attack and shared with the neighbouring country’s government information about his role in planning the strike.
Three others – Khalid Mahmood, Irshadul Haque and Muhammad Shoaib – were also arrested in Pakistan in connection with the attack on the airbase in India.
New Delhi did not call off the proposed resumption of the stalled bilateral dialogue with Islamabad, after the cross-border terror attack on the IAF base at Pathankot, particularly taking into account Pakistan’s offer to act on the information provided by India.
Though the proposed January 15 meeting between the two foreign secretaries to decide the modalities of the bilateral dialogue were postponed after the attack, New Delhi and Islamabad are set to restart formal engagement soon. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his counterpart A A Chaudhry may meet in Kathmandu middle of this month.
“We have now done security audit also in addition to the normal security, and are in the process of ensuring that all army installations will be properly secured,” Parrikar said, replying to a question whether security in and around the defence installations stepped up after the attack on the IAF base at Pathankot. The defence minister also said that the government had received intelligence input indicating that the defence facility in Pathankot could be a target of terror attack.