Pakistan on Sunday expressed its willingness to participate in a ‘neutral and transparent’ investigation into the Pahalgam terror attack, that resulted in the deaths of 26 people.
“The recent tragedy in Pahalgam is yet another example of this perpetual blame game, which must come to a grinding halt. Continuing with its role as a responsible country, Pakistan is open to participating in any neutral, transparent and credible investigation,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said while addressing the army-cadets passing-out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Kakul.
Sharif’s offer came three days after New Delhi unveiled a raft of punitive measures against Pakistan, including suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, closure of the only operation land border crossing at Attari and downgrading of diplomatic ties.
While there was no immediate response from the Indian government to Sharif’s proposal, Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah questioned the legitimacy of the offer. “First they (Pakistan) did not accept that something had happened in Pahalgam. Then they even said it was done by India. They were the ones who first accused us, so it’s difficult to say anything about them,” he said.
This is not the first time Pakistan has offered to assist in investigating a terror attack in India with cross-border connections. After the 2016 attack on the Pathankot air force base by Jaish-e-Mohammed, which left eight people dead, Pakistan dispatched a joint investigation team – including members of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – to India from March 27 to 31, 2016. Their mission was to gather, review, and document evidence, and to interview key witnesses and victims alongside the National Investigation Agency (NIA). However, the collaboration ultimately yielded no tangible results.
Pak’s history of dubious terror probes
India has sent Pakistan judicial requests, detailed dossiers, even DNA samples of terrorists related to various attacks but it has ignored the evidence.
Mumbai attack, November 2008
India handed over dossiers to Pakistan containing evidence against LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, and other handlers. A judicial panel from Pak was also allowed to visit India. However, it never took any concrete action against the perpetrators. Saeed has been held and released several times over the past decade.
Pathankot attack, January 2016
A Pak Joint Investigation Team was allowed to visit the airbase and collect evidence from Indian investigators. It was decided that an NIA team would visit Pak, but Islamabad violated the terms of reciprocity and didn’t share any evidence with India.
Uri attack, September 2016
A Letter Rogatory (LR) or judicial request was sent to Pakistan with details of DNA samples of the terrorists. Islamabad, however, failed to act on the evidence.
Pulwama attack, February 2019
NIA sent a detailed LR seeking information on four Pak-based perpetrators and three Pakistanis who came to India to execute the attack. Pak failed to share any details and instead portrayed itself as a terrorism victim.