'Will Seek Access To Masood Azhar,' NIA Chief Tells NDTV

New Delhi: As a team from Pakistan today investigated the site of the Pathankot terror attack amid opposition protests, a top investigator told NDTV that in the spirit of reciprocity, India will request access to Masood Azhar, the Pakistani terrorist blamed for the attack.

"We will ask for access to Masood Azhar," Sharad Kumar, the chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), told NDTV. A formal request would be sent after the five-member Pakistani team returned home, he said.

Sources in Pakistan have told NDTV that they don't know if Azhar, 47, is still in the country. Last month, top sources in Islamabad said he is on the run.

India's request will test Pakistan's reciprocity at a time its officials, including a member of its Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI, have been allowed to visit Pathankot and examine the military compound attacked in January by six terrorists who were killed in an 80-hour operation. Seven military personnel were killed.

Weeks after the attack, media reports from Pakistan said Azhar and his relatives had been placed under house arrest in Islamabad. But India said it had not been given any such information by the Pakistani government. Top-ranking officials in the Pakistan government later told NDTV that while some Jaish operatives had been arrested, Azhar was not among them.

In a six-hour briefing in Delhi yesterday, the NIA shared with the Pakistan team its findings linking Azhar and his brother Mohammed Rauf Asghar to the Pathankot attack.

"They didn't comment or contradict us on audio evidence. They quietly listened to us and had a few queries," the NIA chief told NDTV.

"Tomorrow we will question them and ask about the status of the investigation," he said.

Lacerated by opposition criticism for allowing the Pakistani team's visit, the government has asserted that Indian investigators will expect Islamabad to return the gesture. "Much of the evidence lies in Pakistan and we will get similar access to the investigations, witness and key suspects in Pakistan," an officer said.

This morning, the Pakistani team was taken to the back of the air base as Congress and Aam Aadmi Party activists protested outside the facility. The Pakistan team was taken to parts of the air force base that are "non-sensitive", with tarpaulin keeping technical areas out of sight.