Lahore/Islamabad: A Pakistani government team investigating the Pathankot IAF base terror attack has sought more information from India through its Foreign Ministry as there has been no 'headway' in the probe as yet.
According to Dawn, the team has almost completed its investigation into five cellphone numbers, used for making calls by terrorists from India to Pakistan, provided by the Indian government. Since no further leads were found from these numbers because they were 'un-registered and had fake identities', the team has asked Islamabad to seek more evidence from New Delhi.
"The probe is not heading further. The team needs more evidence. Therefore, it has written to the government to speak to India and apprise it of the situation and demand more evidence to move forward in investigation here," the Dawn report quoted a source as saying.
Answering a question about the people, including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar, detained in connection with the January 2 terror strike, the source said: "Let first more evidence come from India."
Six terrorists of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad stormed the Indian Air Force base in Indian Punjab's Pathankot town, killing seven security personnel. All the six terrorists were also killed by the security forces.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had formed the six-member investigation team headed by the additional inspector general of Punjab's counter terrorism department (CTD) in the second week of January to look into Indian government's allegations that the JeM was behind the Pathankot attack.
The Prime Minister told reporters here on Saturday that the investigation was under way and its findings would be made public. "Whatever facts come out we will bring them forth before everyone," he said, adding that Pakistan would go to "any length" to uncover the alleged use of its soil in the Pathankot attack.
"It is our responsibility to uncover if our soil was used in the attack. We will do this and the ongoing investigation will be completed soon," he said.
'Surprise visit by Sharif may bring Indo-Pak talks back on track'
Meanwhile, an editorial in The News International, mentioned that the possibility of talks between India-Pakistan being held in the first week of February now seems to be mostly unrealistic, wondering: 'Will it take a surprise visit to India by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to get the talks back on track?'
"It took a rather unorthodox visit to Lahore by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set a talks timeline once again. This was, as we know, disrupted by the Pathankot attack, which Indian officials blame on elements based in Pakistan," an editorial, 'Dialogue with India', reads.
The daily said that while talks are ongoing with India for convening a meeting of foreign secretaries to start what is being called a 'Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue', it seems the tendency is to rather play to the gallery instead.
"The possibility of talks being held in the first week of February now seems to be mostly unrealistic," it reads, adding, 'one must hope the delay is not going to be as long as we have seen in the past'.
Noting that Pakistan has suffered more than India in the war on terrorism, the editorial said that while our priorities may not have always been in the right direction, there have been serious attempts at building regional cooperation on the issue of terrorism over the past years.
"Blaming each other will only lead to a failure of this budding cooperation and, in the long run, strengthen the hands of terrorists who prey on the mistrust India, Pakistan and Afghanistan have of each other."
The daily wondered: "Will it take a surprise visit to India by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to get the talks back on track?"
"This past Saturday, PM Nawaz promised that Pakistan would soon complete its investigation into the Pathankot attack. This would go a long way towards reviving talks between the two countries."
