NIA Reconstructs Pathankot Crime Scene to Trace Terrorists’ Route

NIA reconstructs the route taken by the terrorists to enter the Pathankot Air Force Base. (Photo: The Quint)

The Quint has learnt from top sources in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that the investigators have reconstructed the route taken by the terrorists to reach the Pathankot Air Force Base. Though the security vigilance along the International Border (IB) in Punjab has been heightened, the NIA is still not sure of the route taken by the terrorists to cross over into India.

The agency has reconstructed the route to the air base with the help of mobile Call Detail Records (CDR). The CDR has given the investigators the location and the time of the call made to the handlers by the terrorists. These calls were made from the cellphones of Salwinder Singh and his two associates and Ikagar Singh. The mystery is the route taken by the terrorists before they got into the Innova car of the driver Ikagar Singh, whose body was found abandoned in Kolian village.

<p>We are still not sure whether the terrorists infiltrated on 31 December or before but the call records show their presence on our soil from this date. Secondly, apart from Salwinder Singh, his cook and his friend, no one saw those 4 terrorists whose bodies we recovered. So their statement too has helped us to build up the sequence of events. <br></p>

NIA sources

It is one of the priorities of the investigators to unravel the route taken by the terrorists to prevent future infiltration.

The agency has also questioned several BSF jawans in this connection and is not ruling out their involvement in assisting the terrorists.

Footprints with marks of Pakistani sports shoe brand ‘Epcot’ found in Bamiyal village. (Photo: Reuters)

The NIA is still waiting for the forensic reports of the two sets of footprints suspected to belong to the terrorists found in Bamiyal village. The footprints could be another clue to decipher the terrorists’ route.

Also, on Thursday early morning, a suspected intruder was shot dead by BSF along the Indo-Pak border. The incident took place in Gurdaspur sector near Bamiyal in Pathankot. The other two infiltrators managed to escape.

NIA Will Soon Clarify Salwinder’s Role

Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh. (Photo: The Quint)

The NIA conducted lie detector tests on Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh for two days in connection to the Pathankot terror strike. The tests concluded on Wednesday evening. Based on leads from these tests, an NIA team carried out searches at six locations in Gurdaspur and Amritsar on Thursday. According to the NIA, the locations raided included the residences of Singh, his cook Madan Gopal and his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma.

The NIA refused to provide details of what it is looking for during the searches. The investigators added that they will clarify Singh’s role in the Pathankot attack, whether he is a witness or a suspect, in a week’s time.

<p>We conducted raids on the basis of some inconsistencies in his statement when he underwent the lie detector test. </p>

NIA Sources

The NIA will also conduct a lie detector test on Singh’s cook Gopal, his jeweller friend Verma and the caretaker of the shrine within a week. According to the sources, lie detector tests will help them to corroborate evidence and help them in connecting ‘missing links’.