Suspected Pakistani terrorists Saturday attacked an India Air Force Base at Pathankot in Punjab, triggering a five-hour encounter in which four attackers and three Indian Air Force personnel were killed and six security men were injured.
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The attack Saturday at the Pathankot air force base in Punjab came just a week after the first visit to Pakistan in 12 years by an Indian prime minister.
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Four to five terrorists, suspected from the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group, in army uniforms, launched the attack at 3:30 am on Saturday with the aim of destroying the air base, a top security official said.
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The BBC’s Nitin Srivastava is at the checkpoint in Pathankot which leads to the base.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
After initial reports that the base had been cleared of the attackers, it came to light that the assault continued the following day as well.
Ministry officials refrained from giving details of Sunday’s meeting.
Heavy gunfire was heard at the base Sunday afternoon, said Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, a senior police official.
“Due to the active intelligence inputs and quick action taken by security forces, especially the IAF, we were able to ensure there was no damage to the assets of the Air Force”.
“The entire atmosphere is being vitiated by the ISI, the (Pakistani) army and the separatist groups and their henchmen who have done this (attacked the Air Force base)”, Singh said on the sidelines of a function here. But after the operation was declared successful and complete after almost 14 hours of fighting, troops found that two more militants were hiding inside the sprawling Pathankot base around noon on Sunday.
Defence sources had said that the terrorists sneaked into the almost 2000-acre air base through a forested area where were confronted by the Quick Reaction Team of Garud commandos.
The official said the officer and two other soldiers were injured Sunday when a bomb they were trying to defuse exploded during a search of the site. It houses a fleet of India’s Russian-origin MiG-21 fighters and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware.
Raghavan, who retired as India’s high commissioner to Pakistan on December 31, was present when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his surprise stopover in Lahore to greet Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his birthday.
Since independence from British rule in 1947, the two nations have fought three wars. Security has also been tightened on the Pathankot-Jammu National Highway.
Police have said they’re investigating whether the gunmen came from the Indian portion of Kashmir, where rebels routinely stage attacks, or from Pakistan.
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Pakistan’s government condemned the attack and said it was committed to partnering with India to eradicate terrorism. An NSG commando was also killed during the operations.
