Pathankot attack: Up to Pakistan to decide length of investigation, says US

Washington: The United States maintained their streak of diplomacy over that Pathankot attack and said that it is ‘up to Pakistan’ to sort out how long the probe is going to take while asserting that they want to see a ‘thorough, complete, fair, and transparent investigative’ process.

“It’s not for us to ascribe a timeline to somebody else’s investigation. And clearly, we all like them to be done as quick as possible and transparently discussed when it’s complete. But this is for the Government of Pakistan to sort out how long this investigation is going to take. It’s more important to us that it be a good, solid, thoughtful, and comprehensive investigation, not that it be done by a certain timeline,” US State Department Spokesman John Kirby said in a press briefing.

Maintaining that they’d (US) ‘rather get it right than get it fast’, Kirby added that they will defer to Pakistani authorities to determine their own deadlines and the ‘standards to which they want to hold themselves with respect to this investigation’.

Talking about Pakistan’s role in the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, the spokesman reiterated America’s stand that they want to see all the perpetrators brought to justice.

“We know that that can take a long time. It took an awful long time to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, but we did. So it can be hard,” Kirby said.

He added that the US has been in touch with Pakistan on a daily basis since the Pathankot attack and have been discussing on ‘different levels’ but could not disclose the ‘specifics of diplomatic discussions’.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has demanded ‘concrete evidence besides the leads’ that have been provided by the Indian Government to take action against those suspected of being involved in the terrorist strike on the airbase. (ANI)