Pakistan on Thursday ruled out the possibility of India's National Investigation Team (NIA) team's visit to the country for probe into the Pathankot terror attacks. Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit said that the Pathankot probe was more about cooperation rather than reciprocity. Basit further conceded that at present, the peace process between India and Pakistan is "suspended".
"The whole investigation is about extending cooperation. If India is not ready, we can always wait," said Basit.
"As far as I know, there is no meeting scheduled between the two foreign secretaries yet...let's see if we are able to commence the dialogue process," he added.
Basit's statement comes three days after CNN-IBN reported on Monday that Pakistan was unlikely to allow a team of NIA to visit the country for investigation.
Sources in Pakistan government had said that the NIA would not be allowed to visit the country or granted access to Masood Azhar or other Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) top leaders, who India accuses of mastermind the attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. They had said that India must not expect reciprocity in Pathankot probe.
Reacting to it, sources in India said that Pakistan was not serious about the investigation.
Pointing out that the Pakistan probe team was allowed to examine all witnesses, sources had said that the sudden denial from Pakistan side was nothing but pressure from terror groups.
Meanwhile, Pakistani media had claimed that the JIT was of the opinion that the Pathankot attack was staged by India. Pakistan JIT had also concluded that the standoff between the Indian Army and alleged terrorists ended within hours after the attack, said reports.
According to the Pakistan media, the JIT report said that the Indian authorities made it a three-day drama to get maximum attention from the world community in order to malign Pakistan.
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