AGENCY
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered a probe into the leads provided by India about the Pathankot Air Base attack, a media report said on Friday.
He chaired a high-level meeting on Thursday and discussed the attack on the Indian Air Base, The Nation reported. The Prime Minister and his aides agreed to launch investigations into the evidence provided by India, it said.
A senior official said the leads provided by India were handed over to Intelligence Bureau Chief Aftab Sultan for further action.
Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Sharif said Pakistan was ready to boost cooperation with the neighbouring India as part of counter-terrorism efforts.
Sharif directed National Security Adviser Nasser Khan Janjua to remain in contact with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval in a bid to keep renewed dialogue on track after the attack on Pathankot Air Base.
Another official said the information provided by India was “not enough” as it was just limited to telephone numbers and Pakistan might ask for additional information.
“We would like to have solid information to build a case for action otherwise Courts intervene and the suspects will be bailed out,” he added.
He said the meeting agreed that strong action would be taken after probe against anyone found guilty of involvement in the attack.
The official said that the meeting also decided to speed up implementation of National Action Plan.
Meanwhile, the massive combing operation at the sprawling Air Force Station Pathankot ended on Friday, seven days after six terrorists struck, even as the districts of Pathankot and Gurdaspur remained on high alert in the wake of reported sighting of two men in army fatigues two days back.
The sanitisation operation had been going on for the last three days ever since the six terrorists were gunned down.
The operation to ensure that no terrorist was hiding was carried out jointly by Army, NSG and IAF’s Garud commandos.
The official said the IAF was “sharing and supporting” the NIA with the inputs.
The NIA has investigated the personnel of Defence Services Corps (DSC) in connection with the terror attack.
However, Pathankot and Gurdaspur are still on high alert in the wake of claims by locals in a village that they had seen two men in army fatigues moving in a suspicious manner on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the terrorists who attacked Pathankot Air Base were possibly aged between 20 and 30 years and the samples of their nails, teeth and bones as also the fingertips have been collected for DNA tests, according to a doctor who conducted post-mortem on them.
“Their (terrorists) physique was normal. They were not very tall and not very short. Their height can be 5 feet 6 inches to maximum of 5 feet 9 inches,” Pathankot’s Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Bhupinder Singh said on Friday.
Four of the six terrorists could be in the age group of 20 to 30 years, he further said. Bodies of two other terrorists were completely burnt.
The autopsy was conducted amid tight security and it took six hours.
The bodies had multiple bullet injuries, the doctor said.
“We found minimum of 3 to 4 to maximum of 8 to 10 bullets stuck in their bodies. However, the number of total bullets is yet to be counted,” he said.(PTI)
