Replying to a media query on consular access for former Indian Navy official who is Pakistan’s custody, Mr Swarup said, India is yet to get the access.
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Now, these warrants will be sent to Interpol.
The special court issued the arrest warrant after weighing the evidence presented by NIA before it which included telephonic conversation between the terrorists and the Jaish handlers like Jaan and Latif.
NIA has already sought voice samples of Azhar and three others from Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which came to India for carrying out a probe in the Pathankot terror probe.
Singh expressed dissatisfaction over Pakistan’s suggestion that NIA team would not be allowed to visit Pakistan, the sources said. India had built a strong case for proscribing Azhar as terrorist at the United Nations but the move was vetoed by China. Even if China awaits evidence of Azhar’s role in the Pathankot attacks, it can not be unaware of his long association with terrorist activity, including the 2001 Parliament assault.
Azhar was under arrest in India from 1995 to 1999 but was released with two other terrorists in a swap for passengers on the hijacked Indian Airlines flight, IC-814.
The sources said enough actionable evidence had been provided to the Pakistan probe team that visited India last week.
“The JIT was completely surprised over the evidence the NIA had gathered as proof of the Pakistani links of the terrorists”.
“We had approached the court in this regard a few days back”, said a senior NIA official. After all, it was Azhar along with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed that provided the leadership for most of the terror attacks launched from Pakistan on India. Pakistan had also refused to hand him over to India.
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NIA is handling the Indian investigation of the January 2 terror attack at the Pathankot Indian Air Force (IAF) base, in which seven Indian security personnel were killed by suspected JeM militants.
