Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Jan 20: In a major twist in the ongoing investigations in January 2 Pathankot terror attack case, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) was investigating that two out of six attackers in the strike in which 13 persons were killed could well be the insiders and only four terrorists might have infiltrated from Pakistan to execute the attack.
Hithero, it was being believed that all six militants, who executed the attack were Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) activists of Pakistan, who had targeted Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Pathankot, killing 7 security personnel including a National Security Guards (NSG) Lieutenant. In the encounter that raged more than three days, security forces had killed six militants.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the NIA teams, which have been shuttling between New Delhi to Pathankot and Jammu to investigate one of the major terror strikes in India in which the terrorists had directly targeted airbase, had been closing around the theory that there could be two “insiders” in the attack, who were yet to be identified as their bodies were very badly mutilated as security forces had to raze a multi-storey building to kill the two last surviving militants while as four militants had been gunned down on very first day of the attack.
“They (the two insiders) could be anyone. As on now, no one can say, who they were as there were very populated villages around the airbase especially the border areas of Bamiyal and there had been reports that some local population was allowed inside the base for grazing their cattle,” sources said but admitted that this could be one of the major point to probe in the investigations and will lend credence to the theory that Pakistani attackers had “some kind of local support” in the border belt of Pathankot.
The NIA was very closely monitoring Call Detail Records (CDRs) of telephones recovered from inside the airbase including those in possession of the militants, local phones used in Bamiyal sector and other areas of Pathankot few days before and during the attack and will quiz the persons, who used to go inside the airbase for grazing cattle to ascertain identity of the “local suspected militants”, sources said, adding the Forensic Sciences report was also being awaited eagerly to reach to a conclusion.
All security agencies including the Ministries of Defence and Home Affairs had mentioned that there were six attackers but bodies of only four of them have been identified as “outsiders”, most likely the Pakistanis.
Moreover, there were also signs of infiltration by four militants from Bamiyal sector in Pathankot district of Pakistan and only four AK-47 rifles were recovered from the possession of slain militants, which dropped enough hints that two other militants, who had provided logistic and other support to the attackers, especially the help to gain entry inside the airbase, could be the “local militants”.
There had been reports that four militants alone couldn’t have been able to bring such a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives from Pakistan and some of the weaponry might have been smuggled earlier and given to the militants after their infiltration.
The black corner notice to be issued by Interpol is also against only four terrorists, whose bodies have been preserved in a Government hospital at Pathankot and not against the six as two other bodies were said to be mutilated.
Sources said to establish the identity of the two insiders, the investigators were exploring all angles including the families living in the border areas of Bamiyal and other places, who might have lost their family members but were keeping it as a secret.
“It was in view of this that the NIA teams have fanned out in the border areas and were inter-acting with the Panchayat members, Numberdars and Chowkidars to ascertain whether some people were missing in their areas,” sources said.
Sources said the NIA has also collected some samples from the debris of the airbase building that was razed to ground to kill two last surviving militants.
The investigators have already established that the four militants entered the airbase on the morning of January 1 by scaling the 11feet wall and cutting the concertina wire.
As reported earlier, the call by one of the terrorists to his mother in Pakistan was made from inside the airbase.
Investigators believed that the four terrorists inside the airbase might have panicked after the Indian Air Force conducted an aerial survey following an alert from Punjab Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, who had been kidnapped by the militants on their way to the airbase, but he was let go before the terror group reached their target area.
Salwinder Singh underwent lie detection test on Tuesday and the procedure continued today.
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