The 20-member National Investigation Agency (NIA) team, probing the terrorist attack on the IAF base at Pathankot in Punjab, has begun its investigation by focusing on the mobile phone conversations between the terrorists and their suspected handlers in Pakistan. “We have started our investigation from there as it is vital to find out how the terrorists managed to enter India,” an agency official said.
Sources within the NIA said that the agency is also focusing on the ammunition the terrorists carried, suspected involvement of locals, the route the terrorists took from the India-Pakistan border, the accounts given by a Punjab Police officer, his friend and cook after their abduction by the terrorists just before the attack, and a Pathankot map found from the police officer’s car. “A 20-member team of NIA, led by an inspector general, has been camping in Pathankot to supervise the investigation. Our focus is on these key points,” an official with the agency said, adding that the lapses by the Border Security Force (BSF) in preventing the infiltration from Pakistan into the Bamiyal sector adjoining Gurdaspur in Punjab and Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir were being investigated at the highest level. “We are focusing on the BSF’s role and the failure of Punjab Police, which looks after security of border areas, in the whole incident,” the NIA source said. The NIA is trying to establish the identity of locals who provided army fatigues and a walkie-talkie to the six terrorists after they infiltrated into Punjab. The NIA has sent the DNA samples of the terrorists to Pakistan to establish their identity. Voice samples of the terrorists have also been sought from Pakistan.
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