Pathankot terror attack: NSA Ajit Doval​ 'satisfied' with Pakistan JIT's investigation

National Security Adviser has expressed his satisfaction over Pakistan's five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) team's visit and intent in April to collect evidence against those accused of carrying out Pathankot terror attack.

File Pic

Delhi: National Security Adviser AK Doval has expressed his satisfaction over Pakistan's five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) team's visit and intent in April to collect evidence against those accused of carrying out Pathankot terror attack, as per a media report.

India Today Group quoted sources as saying that in an informal conversation with five former Pakistan High Commissioners at the Prime Minister's Office on Friday, Doval said, "I was quite satisfied with the interest the JIT showed and also the assurances they gave us on the basis of the evidence that we provided them that they would be able to take effective action against culprits."

Moreover, the report also quoted sources as saying that the NSA had assured the delegation that PM Narendra Modi was genuine in his desire to have good relations with Pakistan.

He is reported to have added that efforts being made were not "for posturing or to score diplomatic points". 

However, Doval made it clear to former high commissioners that "Pakistan has to deliver by controlling terrorists and it has to stop bleeding India. It has to abandon the path it had been following in the past."

As per the report, sources said that former high commissioners had pointed out concerns that existed in some circles about Doval's hawkish approach towards Pakistan.

They apparently cited Doval's "offensive defence" posture in a speech which went viral on YouTube in 2014. 

The NSA supposedly replied that he was not the NSA when he had given that speech.

Explaining that basic doctrine of any security mechanism by a country was to ensure that there is a deterrence against those who are trying to harm the country, Doval said that such a doctrine was only meant "to warn the offending country that there will be a cost and a retaliation", as per the report.

Meanwhile, on April 28, government had told told the Rajya Sabha that Pakistan had been clearly told that it should allow an Indian probe team to visit that country in connection with Pathankot terror attack as reciprocity was the principle on which Pakistan's JIT was allowed to visit here.

Minister of State for External Affairs Gen VK Singh had also insisted that the meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries here recently was "no formal talks".

Acknowledging that the Pathankot attack has served to stress once again the centrality of India's concerns regarding cross-border terrorism in ties with Pakistan, the former Army Chief-turned-minister, had however, defended the bilateral engagements saying it was for the first time in the history that country had showed a "cooperative attitude" after a terror attack.

In their first formal bilateral meeting after Pathankot attack, Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan had held talks on April 26 focusing on a range of sticky issues including probe into the strike and Kashmir, which Pakistani side asserted was the "core issue".

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, in India to attend the Heart of Asia conference, had met after which the Pakistani side said its Foreign Secretary "emphasised that Kashmir remains the core issue that requires a just solution in accordance with UNSC resolutions and wishes of Kashmiri people."

(With PTI inputs)