Pakistan's Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on Friday welcomed the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) proposal to send a team to the neighbouring country to probe the Pathankot terror attack, saying mutually convenient dates would be worked out.
"We have made a request that the NIA team should visit Pakistan to investigate the Pathankot attack. Pakistan has welcomed our move," DG NIA Sharad Kumar said after the conclusion of the Pakistani JIT's six-day discussions with the NIA.
The JIT was given a detailed presentation on the probe conducted NIA and was also taken to the crime scene in Pathankot. JIT has been handed over additional documents, which included DNA report of the four terrorists killed in the 80-hour gun battle with security forces.
The Pakistani team – headed by Muhammad Tahir Rai, Additional Inspector General of Police, Counter Terrorism Department, and including ISI's Lt Col Tanvir Ahmed – began their day by recording the statements of witnesses in the case, NIA sources said.
The team arrived in India on March 27. They recorded statements of 16 witnesses, including Superintendent of Police-rank officer of Punjab Salwinder Singh, his jeweller-friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal.
The trio had been kidnapped by the terrorists belonging to the banned Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed outfit on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1.
The Pakistani JIT had asked NIA to hand over swabs of the four terrorists, identified as Nasir Hussain (Punjab province), Abu Bakar (Gujranwala) and Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum (both from Sindh).
However, the Indian anti-terror probe agency handed over DNA reports of the terrorists and asked them to match those with their family members, NIA sources said.
Besides recording the statement of the kidnapped trio, the JIT also spoke to the caretaker of a shrine visited by Singh before he was abducted. They also spoke with policemen and residents who spotted Salwinder Singh's vehicle after it was abandoned by the attackers.
Statements of doctors who conducted the post-mortem on the bodies were also recorded.
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