Pathankot attack: NIA releases photos of 4 slain terrorists; confusion on number of militants killed prevails

Days before Pakistan's Special Investigation Team is supposed to land in India to probe Pathankot Air Force Station attack, the National Investigation Agency released pictures of four militants killed in the siege that took place on January 2.The catch, however, is that findings of the NIA, are yet to find coherence with that of the NSG, which has till date maintained that not four but six militants had attacked the Air Force station, in which seven security personnel were killed.

The pictures of the slain militants, released by the agency on Monday, depict four men, between the height of 5'6" and 5'8". Among four, according to the NIA, two are medium built, one is thin and another healthy with 'circumcision present'. Bodies of four militants were also recovered from the site and according to intelligence agencies the militants belonged to Jaish-e-Mohamad outfit, whose head Maula Masood Azhar was released by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on the hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814.

While NIA chose to remain silent on the total number of militants that had attacked the air force station, the contradictions in the findings of NSG and that of other investigation agencies might be a cause of concern for the Indian representatives, who are supposed to brief the Pakistani SIT.

Following the attack in January, the NSG, in its statement, had said that while their personnel were combing the area, they found one of the rooms of the airmen's billet bolted from the inside. A grenade was lobbed from inside the room, injuring several of its personnel and subsequently fighting resumed. It took almost 48 hours for the NSG to kill the two militants that were holed up in the room.

Adding to the confusion, home minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, congratulating the armed forces and other security forces for "successfully neutralising all the five terrorists". This was much before the encounter finally concluded. The bodies of the two militants killed by the NSG were never recovered due to them being charred.

NIA's preliminary investigation revealed there are only four militants and the agency's investigators had recovered four AK-47s and three pistols from the station. The NIA has not been able to gather any material evidence to substantiate the presence of another two militants. According to the forensic tests that the NIA received, the room had human remains in it, but the same were completely charred.

Moreover, Salwinder Singh, the Gurdaspur superintendent of police (SP), who, on December 31, was allegedly abducted by the same group of JeM militants, has maintained that the number of abductors were four. His jeweller-friend Rajesh Verma, who was also abducted along with him, also maintained the same.

Even though Rajnath had on Friday said the government was "prepared" for the upcoming visit of the Pak SIT, it is yet to be seen how the agencies are working on the attack. Last week, replying to the debate on Pathankot attack in the Lok Sabha, Rajnath quoted the forensic report by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh, and stated that "the burnt mass material belongs to a human male. It could not be possible to establish the identity of burnt male remains as under reference" and that the "2 people inside were indeed terrorists".