New Delhi: Two of the six terrorists killed by security forces during Pathankot airbase attack could have been "insiders", Top NIA officials were quoted as saying to Economic Times.
Government statements after the January 2-3 terrorist strike on the Pathankot airbase had mentioned six intruders, but only four of them were identified as having been outsiders who crossed the Punjab border with Pakistan, the report says.
NIA officials cited recovery of only four AK-47 guns from the seige,for their strong suspicioin that these were possibly used by four Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists.
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The report also says, that the investigative agency is also looking at all personnel present (3,500 people, including family members of those employed) at the airbase, as well as locals to establish the identity of the two insiders.
The forensic report due next week, examination of call logs of phones recovered from the attack sites in the airbase and a close scrutiny of personnel at the air force station will help determine the identity of the "insiders", NIA officials said.
Clearer answers will be available after the agency receives the forensic report next week.
The agency has also established that the four militants entered the airbase on the morning of January 1 by terrorists entered the base by scaling its 11-ft wall and snipping concertina wires.
Reportedly, the terrorists also spent up to 24 hours resting inside a disused Military Engineer Services shed as they prepared to launch their attack.
The call by one of the terrorists to his mother in Pakistan was made from inside the airbase.
A report in The Times of India said that ᄨ 3017775253 and ᄨ 3000597212 were the Pakistani numbers to which calls were made by the Jaish fidayeen after they entered India
According to the report, the first number probably belongs to the mother of one of the militants, while the second one belongs to one of the handlers of the attackers. Investigators are now using the call details to build a case and ascertain the identities of the six terrorists.
Meanwhile, senior Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh on Tuesday underwent a lie detector test in connection with the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) probe in the terror attack at Pathankot air base.
Singh had agreed for a polygraph test after the NIA informed a designated court about alleged “inconsistencies” in his statements before Punjab Police and the NIA.
He was being questioned to ascertain the sequence of events that took place after he was kidnapped on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 by terrorists.
Polygraph tests will also likely be conducted on Singh's cook Madan Gopal and the caretaker of the Somraj shrine, which is near the airbase and Salwinder's friend Jeweller Rajesh Verma will alos be interrogated immdediately after his release from hospital.
Terrorists had struck at the IAF base on the intervening night of January 1 and 2, in which seven security personnel were killed in the encounter that lasted for three days.
