New Delhi did not strike a reciprocity deal with Islamabad before allowing Pakistan's Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to visit India for further investigation into the attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab, the Indian Express reported after examining some related documents.
India was willing to allow the JIT access to the attack site without any condition because it did not want to give Pakistan any opportunity to delay the probe, a senior government official privy to the decision-making process said.
The daily accessed a letter dated March 3, in which the Ministry of External Affairs said Pakistan's Foreign Ministry sought JIT's visit to allow "the building of a strong prosecution case" and promised its investigating team would "ensure admissibility of the evidence in a relevant court of law."
The letter further said Pakistan had identified families of the four attackers, who according to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) were members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and the forensic samples should be handed over to the JIT "for their possible match with specimens of relevant individuals in Pakistan."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved Pakistan's JIT visit to India after consultations with the NIA and police investigating the Pathankot attack. The decision was reportedly opposed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
The senior official told the IE that New Delhi did not work on a legal procedure to seek Islamabad's commitments before allowing Pakistan's probe team to visit India and collect evidence other than those provided to it by India.
The JIT visited Pathankot base in March-end and collected evidence like tissue samples of the four attackers to match it with their family members, but it has not given any report on the same to India.
The Pathankot airbase was attacked on Jan. 2, and the confrontation between the militants and security personnel lasted for around 72 hours. At least seven security personnel and all the four attackers were killed.
