The United States has handed over evidence confirming that the Pathankot airbase attack, held in January this year, emanated from Pakistan. The US has informed the NIA that the IP addresses of Facebook accounts of JeM handlers who have masterminded the January attack and IP address of the website of the outfit's financial arm, Al Rahmat Trust, are located in Pakistan. The probe revealed that FB groups accessed by the friends of JeM handler Kashif Jaan is related to jihad and JeM and contained photos of the four killed terrorists - Nasir Hussain, Hafiz Abu Bakar, Umar Farooq and Abdul Qayum.

NIA is examining the option of filing a chargesheet against the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar in the Pathankot terror attack case. The webpage of Al Rahmat Trust was uploaded on rangonoor.com and alqalamonline.com, which are administrated by Tariq Siddiqui with a common email for both sites and its address is in Rafah-e-Aam Society in Malir, Karachi.

"The US has confirmed that all these websites and IP addresses originated in Pakistan and these were uploaded around the time of the Pathankot attack," an official said.

It was revealed that JeM handler Kashif Jaan was using a Facebook account connected to the same mobile number which the attackers called from Pathankot after kidnapping Punjab police SP Salwinder Singh. The terrorists had made contact with another number in Pakistan connected to the Facebook account of "Mulla Daadullah".

These accounts were accessed around the time of the attack using IP addresses of Pakistan-based telecom firms (Telenor and Pakistan TeleCommunications Company Ltd).

By Premji