Army personnel stand alert near the Indian Air Force Base in Pathankot on January 2, 2016 during an attack on the base by suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad militants. — AFP

New Delhi, March 27

A five-member team of Pakistani investigators arrived here on Sunday to probe the January 2 terror attack at the Pathankot air base in Punjab.

Led by Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department Additional Inspector-General Muhammad Tahir Rai, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) arrived in the National Capital on a special plane from Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport.

Intelligence Bureau’s Deputy Director-General Lahore Muhammed Azim Arshad, Military Intelligence’s Lieutenant- Colonel Irfan Mirza, Lieutenant-Colonel Tanvir Ahmad of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Inspector Shahid Tanveer, a Punjab police officer based in Gujranwala, are the other members of the JIT.

India had blamed JeM militants for the assault on the IAF base in Pathankot in Punjab on January 2, which triggered two days of gunbattle that left seven Indian security personnel dead.

India plans to provide the Pakistani probe team access to all witnesses in the Pathankot terror attack case but not security personnel from the National Security Guard or BSF.

Official sources in New Delhi said on Saturday that India will also press for visit of its probe team to that country for carrying out investigations there.

The sources said the team will not be provided complete access to the Pathankot Air Force base but to limited areas, where Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were engaged in an 80-hour gunbattle with security forces.

The air base will be visually barricaded by the NIA to prevent any view of its critical areas.

The team will be briefed thoroughly tomorrow at the NIA headquarters here which will include a 90-minute presentation on the investigations carried in the case so far, the sources said.

The witnesses include Punjab Police Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal and 17 injured people.

The attack led to the postponement of a scheduled meeting between Foreign Secretaries of Pakistan and India in January in Islamabad.

On February 18, Pakistan had lodged an FIR in connection with the Pathankot terror attack without naming JeM chief Masood Azhar who India has accused of having masterminded the strike. — PTI