India has to face embarrassment in the Uri attack investigating as its investigation and intelligence agencies have failed to find the concrete evidence against Pakistan as claimed earlier by hardliner hawks.
India’s National Investigative Agency (NIA) has decided to file a closure report after failing to find any evidence against two men from Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) whom it accused of facilitating the Uri army base attack.
The decision also seriously undercuts New Delhi’s claims of Pakistani involvement in the attack.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs had earlier claimed to have “proof of the cross-border origins of Uri attacks”, on September 18 last year, which left at least 18 soldiers dead.
Days after the attack, the Indian foreign secretary had called Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit to inform him about the arrest of two guides who allegedly helped four gunmen to infiltrate the country and later attack the Indian Army’s brigade headquarters in Uri.
The duo, which was apprehended just three days after the attack, will be handed over to Pakistan as part of a ‘goodwill agreement’ between Islamabad and New Delhi wherein Indian soldier Chandu Babulal Chohan, who deserted his post at Line of Control (LoC) due to personal grievances against his commanders, was handed over to Indian military officials at the Wagah border.
“Awan and Khursheed had, during their interrogation, disclosed that they were tasked by Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) commanders to facilitate the infiltration of a group of four JeM cadres who carried out the Uri Army camp attack,” ANI quoted an NIA statement of September 27, 2016 as saying.