JeM handler in Pathankot fled Pak with help of ISI

The main Jaish-e-Mohammed handler who directed the terrorists in the Pathankot attack may have been helped by Pakistani intelligence to get safe passage to Afghanistan, according to reports reaching Indian security agencies. The Pakistan media reported a few days back that the Jaish commander had managed to escape to Afghanistan.

Intelligence sources here claimed they had information that the Jaish militant was helped by Pakistani agencies in his escape. Pakistan, which set up a Joint Investigation Team to probe the Pathankot attack, sent a team to India in March this year, but refused to give permission to the National Investigation Agency to send its officers to Pakistan for the probe. If the Jaish man had been caught within Pakistan, the role of Pakistani agencies in the attack would get exposed, an intelligence source said.

Pakistan hasn’t been cooperating with the NIA and other Indian agencies in the Pathankot probe and even claimed it hadn’t been able to establish the exact identity of this militant. However, intelligence sources said the Jaish man, in his late 20s, who talked to the attackers from a location in the tribal areas, had been identified, but this was kept under wraps for operational reasons.