India rejects Pakistan’s call for a joint probe into Pahalgam attack, says evidence shared earlier used to shield terrorists

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on April 26 had expressed his government’s willingness to participate in any 'neutral' investigation into his country’s role in the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

New Delhi: The evidence New Delhi provided to Islamabad in connection with past carnages carried out in India by the terrorist organisations based in Pakistan was rather used by the neighbouring country’s government and military establishment to shield the plotters and perpetrators of the attacks, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Thursday.

New Delhi rejected Islamabad’s calls for a joint or an international probe into the killing of 26 people at Baisaran near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir by a gang of Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists on April 22.

“I think the experience has not been positive, and it certainly doesn't give us the confidence now to take at face value, Pakistani assertions of wishing to participate in a joint investigation. These are just delaying tactics. These are just stonewalling tactics,” Misri said while briefing journalists about Operation Sindoor.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on April 26 had expressed his government’s willingness to participate in any "neutral" investigation into his country’s role in the terrorist attack. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi extended support to the proposal during a phone call with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on April 27.

Islamabad also suggested that China, Russia and a few other nations could join the probe into the carnage in J&K.

“In fact, in the pursuit of justice for the victims of multiple terrorist attacks, whether it be Mumbai in 2008 or in Pathankot in 2016 and many others, in particular for these two attacks, India had offered to cooperate. India provided forensic evidence and urged Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice,” Misri recalled.

“In particular, with regard to the Mumbai attacks of 2008, where a Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist was captured alive, India provided extensive information and evidence related to the involvement of Pakistani terrorists in this attack. Cases were registered (in Pakistan), but you are all aware that these cases have not progressed despite the formation of judicial teams, and Pakistan has consistently stonewalled all efforts to move the investigation along,” the foreign secretary told journalists.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had in March 2016 allowed a team of investigators from Pakistan to visit the scenes of attacks that the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists had carried out inside the airbase at Pathankot in India. The officials of India’s National Investigation Agency had accompanied the investigators from Pakistan during the tour to the Indian Air Force base.

The exercise, however, had not resulted in any meaningful action by Pakistan against the terrorist organisations known for carrying out attacks in India. The Indian Army, later on September 26 that year, carried out its first publicly acknowledged “surgical strikes” on the camps of the terrorists in the areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

“We gave unprecedented access to the Pakistani team to the site of the attack. Details of call records data and DNA were shared with Pakistan. We had shared with them the addresses of terrorists. We presented evidence against the Jaish-e-Mohammad office bearers who had conspired in the attack, and the handlers of the terrorists who facilitated them. But there has been no movement on this,” Misri said on Thursday.

“And, there is reason to believe that Pakistan uses the evidence that we provide only to cover its tracks, and, in fact, defend the terrorists, whom we are looking for, and obstruct the path of investigation,” added the foreign secretary.