Daily Times

NEW DELHI: India’s counter-terrorism agency on Monday charged Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and its leader Masood Azhar for attack on the Pathankot air force base in January.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) alleged that all four gunmen who stormed the air base on January 2 were “Pakistani nationals” and Azhar was the mastermind behind the attack.

“All the terrorists are accused of waging war against India. This was a criminal conspiracy to attack our security infrastructure,” said a senior official at the NIA in New Delhi.

The presentation of a charge-sheet to a trial court wraps up India’s investigation into the 18-hour siege at the Pathankot air base in which seven Indian security personnel and the four assailants were killed.

The attack, which came a week after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a ‘surprise’ visit to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the occasion of his granddaughter’s wedding in Lahore, derailed a tentative thaw between the nuclear-armed rivals.

A joint investigation into the attack went nowhere and tension between the neighbours has risen over the course of a year marked by protests and cross-border clashes in Indian-held Kashmir. Investigators in New Delhi said the charge-sheet and evidence would be offered to Pakistani authorities to take action against the perpetrators.

“We want Pakistan to arrest Maulana Masood Azhar and he should be deported to India,” said a senior Indian Home Ministry official who is overseeing the investigation. The charge-sheet cited DNA samples, food packets from Pakistan found in woodlands near the air base, a walkie-talkie set and a note found in a car used by the militants to drive to the base.

India said it had earlier given what it called “actionable intelligence” on alleged Jaish involvement in the attack to Pakistan, including telephone intercepts. Pakistan took Azhar, who was also blamed for a 2001 attack on Indian parliament, into ‘protective custody’ after the Pathankot attack. Its investigators later found no evidence against either Azhar or JeM.

On June 2, NIA Director General Sharad Kumar said the agency did not find any evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pathankot attack.

“No evidence to show Pakistan government or Pakistani government agency was helping Jaish-e-Mohammed, Masood Azhar or his aides carryout the Pathankot attack,” he said while speaking to News18.

The NIA head had added his country had carried out complete investigation in India and now he would wait to visit Pakistan for further probe. Pakistan had also formed a joint investigation team (JIT) which visited the Indian airbase in March to probe the involvement of JeM in the attack.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria had said the recent statement by the DG NIA had vindicated Pakistan’s long-standing stance on the matter of Pathankot incident.

“Pakistan’s spirit of cooperation is manifested in the action we took in the wake of the alleged incident,” he had added.