Pak SIT may seek to examine Punjab cop in Pathankot probe

ISLAMABAD/ NEW DELHI: A Pakistani team probing the attack on the Pathankot airbase might seek to question a top Punjab police official who was allegedly abducted and let-off by the group of militants involved in the strike at the defence installation.

Seven Indian security personnel and six militants, believed to be from the Pakistan-based Jaishe-Mohammed (JeM), were killed during the 84-hour siege of the airbase in January.

After New Delhi shared with Islamabad a set of phone numbers allegedly used by the militants, Pakistan proposed to send a special investigation team (SIT) to India.

Besides questioning t he Gurdaspur superintendent of police Salvinder Singh, the SIT may also seek access to the airbase, this writer learnt during a recent visit to Islamabad.

T he police of f i ci al was interrogated by the National

Investigation Agency ( NIA) several times after doubts were raised about the sequence of events he narrated on his abduction and release.

India has agreed to receive the SIT on a five-day notice before its arrival. “They have to prove their bona fide by arriving for investigation against the real culprits,” a top official in New Delhi told Hindustan Times.

Islamabad recently registered an FIR on the basis of the telephone numbers shared by India.

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Seven security personnel were killed in the January 2 attack.