Arvind Kejriwal tweeted Modi government has surrendered to Pakistan by inviting the ISI for Pathankot probe
Highlights
- 5-member Pakistani team is in India to probe the Pathankot terror attack
- The team's arrival created a strong backlash in the Delhi legislature
- "Go back, ISI," said placards carried by some AAP members
Prime Minister Narendra Modi "has capitulated to Pakistan" by allowing a team, which includes representatives of the powerful military intel agency ISI, to travel to India to investigate the deadly attack on the Pathankot air force base, said Arvind Kejirwal today.
The Pakistani team's arrival created a strong backlash in the Delhi assembly, where all but three members belong to Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party.
"Go back, ISI," said placards carried by some AAP members at a session where Mr Kejriwal
presented his government's budget for the new financial year. Delhi ministers were aggressive, with one alleging that "Mr Modi feeds biryani to the ISI"; another said "before he was elected, the PM used to say for every soldier the Pakistanis kill, we will produce the heads of 10 of theirs -what happened?"
AAP, which made a strong entry for a newcomer in the general election in Punjab, is campaigning for a much bigger footprint ahead of the state elections, due next year.
Delhi has blamed the powerful and notorious ISI for playing key roles in some of the worst terror attacks in India.
Amid strong criticism by other opposition parties like the Congress, the Pakistani team, which has five members, will travel tomorrow to Pathankot, where seven military personnel were killed in January.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said that it is upto the country's top counter-terror body, the
National Investigating Agency or NIA, to decide what parts of the base can be toured by the visitors. The minister added that sensitive sections have been thoroughly barricaded to block the Pakistanis from even a basic view of those facilities.
A group of terrorists that crossed the border at the start of the new year split into two groups before breaching, with startling ease, the 1,200 - acre base, and opening fire indiscriminately. It took nearly 80 hours to recover control of the base.
Pakstani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif immediately pledged his cooperation to the investigation, comprised a team of military and senior government officials to examine the evidence offered by India, and said the team would travel to India, if allowed.
Government sources point out that by allowing the Pakistani team access to key witnesses and evidence, they are foiling any attempts by Islamabad to duck responsibility for the attack. They also stress that much of the access allowed will be reciprocal - in particular, they want access to the mastermind of the Pathankot attack, Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed.