Pathankot terror attack staged by India: Pakistani report

New Delhi - The JIT report further alleges that Indian authorities had prior information about the terrorists.

Pakistani newspaper Pakistan Today  has reported that the Joint Investigative Team that visited India to look into the Pathankot terror attacks that took place on 2 January said the incident was staged by India. The paper quoted a member from the team as saying it was a staged incident that was used to spread "vicious propaganda" about Pakistan "without having any solid evidence to back the claim".
The JIT report, which will be submitted to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the next few days, further alleges that Indian authorities had prior information about the terrorists.
Pakistan Today further states that the JIT's report says that "the Indian government did not cooperate with the JIT and instead made efforts to hinder the probe" by the Pakistani team.
However, Indian investigators on Monday said the visiting officials did not "contradict" any of the evidence submitted by the NIA, reports IANS.
The same source also revealed to Pakistan Today that the JIT concluded that the standoff between the Indian army and "alleged" terrorists ended within hours after the attack.
"The Indian authorities made it a three-day drama to get maximum attention from the world community in order to malign Pakistan," Pakistan Today quoted the JIT report as saying.
This revelation comes just days after the fact that the same JIT agreed that the four terrorists who attacked the Air Force base in January were from Pakistan.  
Last week, a five-member team from Pakistan had visited Pathankot, and collaborated with officials from India's National Investigation Agency. The Pakistani team also questioned India's witnesses from the incident, despite huge protests from the Opposition party in India who questioned how an ISI officer was allowed to visit India and permitted inside the airbase.
Pakistan Today also alleged that the murder of an NIA official on Sunday was "evidence that the Indian establishment wants to keep the matter under wraps", and that the team was not allowed to collect evidence. The source also told Pakistani media that "no major damage was done to the base" and no evidence was shared regarding India's "claims that terrorists had entered from the Pakistani side of the border".
Pakistani media further insists that Indian authorities showed "signs of reluctance" when the JIT asked them for information and evidence to support their claims.
A  report in the Daily Times alleges that, "Sketches of the attackers, footage of the closed-circuit television, duty registers of the Border Security Force (BSF), details of the bank accounts, service records, post-mortem report of the driver who died in the car accident at the time of the incident and the FIR of that car's snatching have not been given to the Pakistani investigation team."

• India
• Pakistan