Daily Times

The arrival of a five-member Pakistani Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in India to formally probe the Pathankot air force base attack has stirred up controversy. Earlier, the Indian government had accepted Pakistan’s proposal to jointly investigate the January 2 attack on the Pathankot airbase. The Bharatya Janata Party (BJP)-led government’s move has sparked criticism from mainstream opposition parties in India including the India National Congress (INC) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), whose leaders have termed the decision to allow a JIT from Pakistan to visit India unacceptable accusing that the Pathankot terror attack was Pakistan-ISI-sponsored and in this situation, how can ISI probe against itself? Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘kneeling’ to Pakistan by allowing access to investigators to sensitive areas of India. A number of protests were staged by activists of opposition parties in India after the arrival of the Pakistani team in New Delhi. Although the BJP leadership is defending the government’s stance, stating that the Indian government has provided an opportunity to Pakistan to prove its sincerity by trying those who are involved in across the border terrorism, yet it has failed to pacify the opposition. The JIT was provided access to limited areas in the airbase after detailed presentations on the terrorist attack by Indian security personnel. However, the JIT was not allowed to interact with the IAF or other defence and security officials and personnel involved in the 80-hour counter-operation by security forces against terrorists who attacked the airbase in the early hours of January 2, 2016.

New Delhi had blamed Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants for the attack and shared leads with Islamabad. Acting on the information provided by India, Islamabad had formed a JIT comprising officials from intelligence agencies as well as the police to probe the attack. Despite concerns by India’s opposition parties, the joint probe by Pakistani and Indian security officials can only be welcomed. It is an unprecedented development in the history of bilateral relations between the two neighbouring states who have always indulged in blame-game instead of adopting a better course of action of taking to task those who are responsible for fuelling tension between Islamabad and New Delhi. Instead of criticising this initiative, there is a need to welcome cooperation between the security agencies from both states. India needs to cooperate with Pakistan in finding further clues to those who were involved in spreading terrorism while Pakistan needs to take action against home-based militants. One thing must be clear that the issue of terrorism is a common challenge for both states and only joint efforts can yield positive results for the elimination of this threat. Both India and Pakistan should go ahead with the peace process and work on a common agenda of defeating peace spoilers. *