Pakistan, Islamabad: A senior diplomat told on Yesterday, “The investigation team’s visit is expected, is is not sure”. He added,  dates for the visit were yet to be finalised. A team of Pakistani investigators is likely to visit India next month for collecting evidence relating to alleged involvement of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists in the Pathankot airbase attack.

The registration of FIR by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab police has, however, paved the way for the visit of the six-member investigation team constituted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif weeks after the attack on the airbase on January  2. The investigation team will visit the site of the attack and collect evidence related to Indian claim that the terrorist strike was planned in Pakistan and executed by a group of four persons who had crossed the border into Pathankot. The investigators will also meet officials of India’s National Investigating Agency investigating the attack.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner Abdul Basit held a meeting with Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Thursday and informed him about the registration of the FIR in the case. The FIR will provide a legal basis for taking the investigation forward. The federal government, while seeking the lodging of FIR, had said that “a first information report may be registered …. and investigation may be conducted so as to identify the culprits involved in the offence and bring them to trial in accordance with the law”.

India, a diplomatic source said, was ready to receive the Pakistani team and facilitate it in investigations. The decision regarding cooperation with Pakistan was taken at a meeting in Delhi presided over by Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in which issues relating to the visit of the Pakistani team were discussed.