AMRITSAR: Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) completed its investigation into the Pathankot airbase amid protests by Indian political parties and Hindu extremist groups, Indian media reported on Tuesday. Security was tightened outside the airbase on Pakistani investigators’ arrival. The five-member team entered the base from a separate entrance, which was opened exclusively for them. The JIT members — Punjab Counter Terrorism Department chief Tahir Rai, Azeem Rashid, Lieutenant Colonel Tanveer, Lieutenant Colonel Irfan Mirza and inspector Shahid Mirza — were brought to the base in bulletproof SUVs from Amritsar. Activists of India’s main opposition party, Indian National Congress, staged a protest demonstration outside the Pathankot airbase against Pakistani investigators’ visit. Rightwing Hindu extremist Shiv Sena criticised the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for allowing the Pakistani investigation team to visit the airbase. “The hospitality we have shown to the Pakistani JIT does not suit our country’s self-respect and pride,” said Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena MP in the upper house of the India Parliament. “We have pinned the route taken by the terrorists on a map and will be presenting it to the JIT. We have identified the riverine route and the village along Pakistan border from where they entered India,” said an official. This is the first time that India has allowed a team from Pakistan to conduct an investigation of this kind at such a sensitive location.
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