India to seek US help to find out if Pakistan equipped Pathankot attackers

NEW DELHI: The binoculars used by the six Pathankot militants were made in USA and have US Army markings. This suggests that either the Jaish-e-Mohammad stole them from one of the bases of US Army in Afghanistan or it was taken from Pakistan army, which also procures military equipment from the US.

NIA will now approach US seeking information on the binoculars on the basis of the serial number mentioned on them, to ascertain details like when and where it was stolen.

Sources said that NIA has also got a lot of material including clothing, shoes and other material which links the militants to Pakistan.

After five days of intensive grilling of Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh in the Pathankot terror attack, the National Investigation Agency has decided to conduct a lie detection test on the officer as there are a lot of contradictions in his statements and the agency feels that he is also lying about certain things.

Official sources said that the lie detection test will be conducted next week after taking the consent of the court and Salwinder Singh.

SP Salwinder Singh was on Friday confronted with his cook Madan Gopal and the caretaker of the Dargah he visited that night - Somraj.

Singh's car was hijacked by terrorists before they entered the Pathankot IAF base on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1.

The sources said bringing them face-to-face was necessary because of "conflicting statements". While Singh had told the Punjab police he frequently visited the shrine, Somraj claimed he had seen him for the first time hours before terrorists launched the brazen attack on the Pathankot facility.

Singh had said he was kidnapped by the terrorists after his visit to the shrine and later let off as they did not know his identity.

Six terrorists were killed in a counter-operation by Indian forces that lasted for about three days and also claimed the lives of seven security personnel.

In the meantime, CFSL has been asked to recover the serial number of AK-47 rifles and revolvers recovered by the NIA after an 80-hour long terror strike at the Pathankot IAF base so that the same could be shared with the company to ascertain the country from where it was shipped, the sources said.

The NIA was also studying details of the terror strike at Dinanagar in Gurdaspur district on July 27 last year after investigators of the central terror probe agency found similarities with the attack on Pathankot air base.

Three heavily-armed militants in army fatigues, believed to have infiltrated from Pakistan, had on July 27 sprayed bullets at a moving bus and stormed a police station in Dinanagar, killing eight people, including a superintendent of police before being gunned down. The case is being probed by the Punjab police.