India issues visas to 5-member Pakistan team to probe attack

Indian authorities Friday issued visas to five officials from Pakistan investigating the attack on an Indian airbase in Punjab, state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) reported.

The officials are likely to collect the evidence for their ongoing probe into the attack.

"These five members of the Pakistani joint investigation team will travel to India on Sunday," the broadcaster said.

India had agreed to allow the Pakistani investigators to visit the Pathankot Air Base after Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj met her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz in Kathmandu on the sidelines of South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) Foreign Ministers' meet on March 17.

New Delhi blames Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militant outfit for the attack and urges Islamabad to act against the group.

In January this year, a group of gunmen in military fatigues entered highly guarded Pathankot airbase, about 430 km north of Indian capital city of New Delhi and engaged Indian troops in fierce gunfight for four days. Seven Indian troops and six gunmen were killed inside the airbase.

Media reports said the five-member investigating team would not be having access to technical areas in the airbase.

It is for the first time that Pakistani investigators are travelling to neighboring country of India to investigate a terror attack.

Pakistan had constituted the probe team on the leads provided by India. Endit