Pakistan has washed its hands of involvement in the Pulwama attack while giving the impression that the final word had not been said.
Meanwhile, India expressed disappointment at Pakistan’s response to the dossier on JeM’s complicity in Pulwama terror attack, the Ministry of External Affairs said.
“Pakistan has not shared details of credible action, if any, taken by it against terrorists based in territories under its control.
“Regrettably, Pakistan continues to be in denial and even refuses to acknowledge Pulwama as a terror attack,” the MEA said.
Pakistan has given a clean chit so far to 54 individuals picked up out of a list of 90 provided by India. It also denied terrorist training camps existed at 22 pin locations provided by India. At the same time, it is demonstrating a willingness to allow visits, “on request”, to these locations.
Pakistan’s purported Wednesday night statement was released on Thursday shortly after news broke that the US had moved the UNSC to list Jaish-e-Mohamed chief Masood Azhar. In an effort to relieve that pressure, Islamabad’s diplomatic corps was informed about the findings of the preliminary report as well as Pakistan’s “consistent commitment to cooperate” in the Pulwama probe.
The denial about terrorist camps and the involvement of its citizens notwithstanding, Pakistan kept open the door for further exchanges by seeking more details from India as well as US- and Dubai-based social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.
Pakistan maintained that local conditions had catalysed the Pulwama attack and it sought additional information and documents from India that would be “essential to continue the process of investigations”.
Islamabad’s response came a month after India had shared a 91-page dossier. Out of six parts in the dossier, Pakistan responded to only two since the other sections contained “generalised allegations”.
Pakistan had assembled an investigation team, detained several people for investigations and initiated work on the technical aspects of the social media content.
During the course of investigations, Pakistan examined the “confessional” video of Adil Dar, “claim” of responsibility for the attack, Whatsapp and Telegram numbers used to share videos and messages in support of Pulwama attack, list of 90 individuals suspected of belonging to a proscribed organisation and 22 pin locations of the alleged training camps.