Pakistan JIT visits Pathankot airbase

PATHANKOT: The Pakistan Joint Investigation Team arrived at the Pathankot airbase of Tuesday.

Protests erupted outside the Pathankot airbase ahead of Pakistan Joint Investigation Team's arrival. The protesters who belonged to the Congress party held banners of ‘Pakistan JIT, Go Back’ outside the airbase.

The Pakistan JIT which includes Punjab Counter Terrorism Chief Additional IG Muhammad Tahir, Azeem Rashid, Lieutenant Colonel Tanveer, Lieutenant Colonel Irfan Miza and Inspector Shahid Mirza has reached Amritsar to visit parts of the Pathankot Airbase.

They JIT had left in a bullet-proof SUV to the airbase.

The Indian government has allowed limited access to the JIT inside the airbase. The team will visit the area where the attack took place on January 2.

A separate entrance has been erected for the team and they will not be allowed to enter from the main gate, Indian media said.

The Pakistani investigators, who departed for New Delhi via a special flight, will remain in India for seven days to investigate the Pathankot Airbase attack

The team would not be allowed to question SP Gurdaspur Salwindar Singh, who was abducted by militants on December 31 last year before the attack on the Pathankot Airbase near the Pakistan border.

The announcement of the key decision to send the JIT was made in Pokhara earlier this month, where foreign ministers and foreign secretaries were gathered for the 37th Saarc Council of Ministers Meeting.

The meeting between Pakistan’s advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was the first high-level meeting between the two sides after the December 25 meeting between the two prime ministers in Lahore.