Pathankot attack: Pakistan team to visit this weekend, but no legal basis of its probe
Sources also revealed that one of the biggest takeaways for India from the JIT’s visit would be that New Delhi could press for reciprocity in near future.
(Reuters) 
File photo of Pathankot airbase
Days ahead of Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team’s (JIT) India visit, scheduled for March 27 to probe the Pathankot terror attack, sources told The Indian Express Tuesday that the exercise is likely to be a dud with no clear legal basis yet for the probe, intended to be carried out by the team.
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In the absence of a Letter Rogatory (LR) from Pakistan for gathering evidence in India for its Pathankot probe, any lead gathered during the JIT’s visit to the Pathankot airbase would have no legal value, they said. A Letter Rogatory is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance, with the most common remedies sought being service of process and gathering of evidence in the foreign country.
WATCH: Pakistan JIT At Pathankot Surveying Areas Accessed By Terrorists
Sources also revealed that one of the biggest takeaways for India from the JIT’s visit would be that New Delhi could press for reciprocity in near future. In a couple of months, India is likely to request Islamabad to allow a team from the National Investigation Agency to conduct its own inquiry in Pakistan, based on leads gathered during its investigation into the Pathankot attack, officials said.
“As things stand, there is no legal basis to the Pakistan JIT’s trip to India. While an LR has been sent to Pakistan around a fortnight ago on the request of the NIA for following up on leads gathered during the agency’s Pathankot probe, there has been no LR received from Pakistan. Without an LR being sent, any information or evidence gathered by the Pakistani officials cannot be placed on record and cited as evidence in the investigation being carried out in Pakistan,” said a source.
Sources said the JIT’s enquiries in India could be mere posturing ahead of a likely meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif in Washington. The Ministry of External Affairs has received visa requests for the five-member JIT from Pakistan. Sources said they would be granted 15-day visas.
“There has been no response yet on the LR sent to Pakistan for evidence in the Pathankot probe. Any evidence sought under the LR will have to be shared through the courts, and as such, if the JIT shares any details with the NIA during their interaction, this too cannot be cited as evidence in a court in India,” sources said.
“A massive takeaway for India in granting access to the Pakistan JIT will be that in a couple of months, the NIA is likely to press for reciprocal access to Pakistan for conducting further investigation into the Pathankot attack. The Pakistan government can impose restrictions on the Indian probe team, but Islamabad will find it extremely difficult to deny access completely,” said a source.
Through an LR sent around two weeks ago, the NIA has sought from Pakistani authorities call analysis of the mobile numbers used during conversations between the Pathankot attackers and their Pakistan-based handlers, identification of those named during the intercepted conversations, and the source of food packets and other articles carried by the terrorists.
3 men hijack car in Pathankot
Amritsar: Three youths snatched a car at gunpoint from a 23-year-old civilian near Sujanpur town in Pathankot district Tuesday evening. Punjab Director General of Police Suresh Arora said preliminary investigations do not point to any terror angle. He added that police have been put on high alert across the state. “Special checkpoints have been set up.” ENS
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