Pathankot Attack: Three suspects remanded into CTD custody

GUJRANWALA (Staff Report) - An anti-terrorism court in Gujranwala has granted physical remand of three suspects of Pathankot Airbase Attack to Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).

Three accused; Khalid Mahmood, Irshadul Haque and Muhammad Shoaib; were detained from a house near Chand Da Qila bypass in Gujranwala. The CTD officials believe that alleged terrorists were facilitators of those who attacked Indian airbase in January this year.

Earlier an FIR was registered in Pathankot airbase attack case, as part of ongoing investigation into terrorist attack that killed four personnel of Indian military on January 2 this year.

The FIR was registered against unidentified terrorists in Gujranwala Counter Terrorism Police Station under the sections 302, 309 and 301 of Pakistan Penal Code and section 7 of Anti-terrorism Act.

The interior ministry deputy secretary Aitzaz-uddin is main complainant of the FIR, which also states the phone numbers provided by Indian intelligence agencies.

A group of terrorists attacked Indian airbase in Pathankot and killed several military officials. All of the attackers were killed during cleanup operation.

Indian officials blamed that attackers had come from Pakistan and were in contact with the planners in Pakistan during the attack on airbase.

A top level investigation team comprising of Intelligence Bureau officials had been investigating the matter in Pakistan, after India exchanged few leads about involvement of Pakistanis in the attack. The team was also expected to visit India in beginning of March.

Pakistan also took several members of Jaish-e-Mohammad including Moulana Masood Azhar, who according to India planned the attack, into protective custody and registration of FIR indicates that Islamabad plans to formally arrest these people.