The five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) from Pakistan visited “the area” of the January 2 attack inside the Pathankot airbase on Tuesday and retraced the route suspected to have been taken by the terrorists after crossing the border somewhere near Bamial. Also read | Pakistan has made serious effort in Pathankot terror probe: Amit Shah After reaching Amritsar at around 9.15 am in a plane chartered by BSF, the team spent about an hour inside the airbase and was taken to the site of the attack not far from the main entry gate. Sources said the JIT was taken to “all places related to the attack”, including the airmen’s billet that was later blown up and locations outside the airbase, before leaving for Delhi at 5.45 pm. WATCH: Pakistan JIT At Pathankot Surveying Areas Accessed By Terrorists With the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party staging protests against the visit, the Pakistani team was taken inside through a rectangular passage made by demolishing part of the boundary wall, next to the point where terrorists entered. [related-post] Defence ministry sources said the IAF was kept in loop about the security arrangements and that the JIT was given access only to “secured” areas after the “operational assets” were cordoned off. The airbase, one of the closest to the border, houses the IAF’s Mig-21s besides its chopper fleet. Also read | Tall screens set up to limit access of Pak JIT team “The IAF did not have an active role in ensuring the security of the airbase. However, the areas that house the strategic assets were visually blocked from the view of the team,” a defence ministry official said. Also read | In arrest of ‘spy’, Pakistan senses optics victory on terrorism Official sources said that the JIT examined the terrorists’ intrusion point for about 10 minutes before being taken inside. At around 12:30 pm, they were taken to the airbase entry point on a bus along the passage adjacent to boundary wall, they added. The JIT was then taken to Akalgarh village, where the SUV of Punjab Police SP Salwinder Singh was found abandoned and his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma attacked. After a halt of barely two minutes, it was taken to Gulpur Simbly where Singh and his cook Madan Gopal were allegedly dumped by the terrorists. Also read | Pathankot attack: Pakistan probe team denied permission to go near air base SP Singh, Gopal and Verma had claimed that they were returning from the Taloor shrine on the intervening night of December 31, 2015, and January 1, 2016, when they were intercepted by the terrorists who attacked them and took their vehicle. Also read | Pak team in town but for under-scanner priest at peer tomb, it’s business as usual The Pakistani team was also taken to Kathlore bridge, where taxi driver Ikagar Singh was murdered, and Kathana where the terrorists allegedly carjacked SP Singh’s SUV, said sources. From there, the convoy moved to the Bamial overbridge over the Ujh river to view the area from where terrorists are suspected to have crossed the border. The team, however, did not go down to the field where the footprints of the terrorists were reportedly spotted by a farmer, barely 300 metres from the bridge, said sources. It also did not visit the Pathankot civil hospital to see the bodies of the four terrorists lying there for over two months. Sources said the JIT posed a number of questions regarding the methods used by the terrorists. “The military members of the JIT wanted to know the manner in which the four terrorists moved about. They specifically asked if these intruders moved about in buddy pairs or were they following the 1+3 method of movement,” an official told The Indian Express. The buddy pair movement defines the pairing of two persons with one of them giving covering fire and the other moving ahead. The “1+3” movement denotes a leader taking charge of the group and leading the rest. Sources say the pattern of questions asked by the JIT to National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials suggested that they were trying to ascertain the degree to which the terrorists had received their training and whether there was any involvement of a professional military person. The JIT is also learnt to have sought details of how Indian forces came to know about the intrusion along the border, including the movements of SP Singh. The team was also briefed about the arms and ammunition seized from the terrorists and the Pakistani markings found on the medicines and other equipment used by them. Led by Muhammad Tahir Rai, Additional Inspector General of Police (Punjab Province), the Pakistani team comprised Mohammed Azim Arshad, Deputy Director-General, Pakistan’s Intelligence Bureau, military intelligence officer Lieutenant-Colonel Irfan Mirza and Lieutenant-Colonel Tanvir Ahmad of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
