On upcoming talks Intercepted calls give away outfit

NEW DELHI: The interception of phone calls made to Pakistan gave the first and the most sound proof that the militants who attacked the Indian Air Force base attack in Pathankot belonged to the Jaishe-mohammad.

The outfit — the name of which means ‘army of the Prophet’ — is based in Pakistan and headed by Maulana Masood Azhar, who was one of three terrorists freed by India in exchange for the release of 176 passengers aboard an hijacked Indian Airline flight in 1999.

Top Punjab police officials told HT that the JEM involvement, outed by the phone intercepts, was clear hours before the airbase was attacked in what officials say was planned to be a suicide mission.

“First call was intercepted on Friday afternoon. The location of the call was around the Pathankot airbase. The intercepted call and location of the mobile phone made it clear that the airbase might be the target and it was a terrorist attack. An alert was sounded around the airbase in Pathankot,” said a senior home ministry official requesting anonymity.

The calls were made from the phones of a Punjab police officer who was abducted by the militants, one of his aides and the driver of an Innova who had been killed When an aide of the police officer called one of the phones that went into the hands of the militants, he got the reply, “Salaam Alaikum.” However, after the caller pointed out that the phone belonged to SP Salwinder Singh, the call was dis connected. Calls made from only one phone were intercepted.

According to home ministry officials, in one of the intercepted calls a suicide attacker called his mother in Pakistan, telling told her that he has not gone to join the military but has left on a suicide mission. The calls were intercept ed by external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing.

“There were communication to Pakistan from other phones as well but that could not be intercepted For deep recce of area around the airbase, a chopper was flown to search for the terrorists. There loca tion was identified as they opened fire on the chopper. It seems that the terrorists entered the airbase area before the alert was sounded. We will examine how they managed to gain entry into the airbase,” said a senior counter-terror official.

JEM swears by its jihadist goal to “liberate J&K from India”. The JEM and Lashkar-e-toiba — anoth er Pakistan-entrenched outfit — were also conspirators of the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament