NEW DELHI: This is Kashif Jan, the main handler of the Pathankot air force base attackers and an aide of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar.
The face of the deadly terror attack had remained obscure to agencies hunting for JeM handlers sheltered in Pakistan with the help of ISI and Army. NIA probing the attack wants to quiz Jan, but Pakistan’s recent charade is seen as an attempt to sabotage the agency’s impending visit.
According to sources, Jan, who provided logistics to Pathankot attackers and facilitated the meticulous infiltration plan, deleted his Facebook profile within hours of the terror strike. But the two grabs now accessed by intelligence agencies exposed Jan’s identity and his role in the Pathankot attack.
Jan was actively involved in terror activities and had left his Karachi number on the Facebook profile, which connected the dots in linking him with four terrorists—Nasir Hussain, Hafiz Abu Bakar, Abdul Qayum and Umar Farooq. Sources said one of the terrorists used the mobile phone of Punjab SP Salwinder Singh’s friend Rajesh Verma and called +923453030***.
The number was traced to Jan. Singh, Verma and cook Madan Gopal were kidnapped by the terrorists on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 before they snaked into Pathankot air base and unleashed terror. It is learnt that four-five calls were made to Jan from Verma’s phone. A week later, Pakistan claimed to have arrested Jan and another handler, Saad Mughal, had been arrested.
A senior intelligence officer doubts Jan’s arrest.