“Operations to eliminate two more terrorists, possibly, are in the final stages”, Maj.
Advertisement
“We obviously want to help them particularly in light of that bad terrorist incident where we saw an extremist organisation carry out an attack against an elementary school inside Pakistan”.
As operations in Pathankot airbase continued on Sunday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj convened a “brainstorming session” of former foreign secretaries and Indian high commissioners to Pakistan to evolve a strategy to deal with the neighbour.
An army statement said the last gunmen were firing from a building that is part of the living quarters on the base.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also chaired a high-level meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Jai Shankar and other top officials on Sunday night to take stock of the Pathankot attack. The first group comprised two militants, who positioned themselves inside the air base on 1 January, before the SP was abducted. The possibility of the involvement of some security personnel with the smuggling gang can not be ruled out as there have been inputs in the past about some elements being linked to the establishment of the drugs racket, the sources said. Garud commando Gurusewak Singh and two members of the DSC were killed in the gunbattle on Saturday at the air base, located barely 35 km from the Indo-Pak border.
One of the terrorists holed up in the Pathankot air base and was engaging the security forces is believed to have been killed.
Mopping operations inside the air base is still continuing.
India shares a 3,323-km-long border, including Line of Control, with Pakistan of which 553 km falls in Punjab and 1,225 km in Jammu and Kashmir, most of which is fenced.
As the operation against the terrorists entered the third day, NSG, IAF and Army officers said there was no collateral damage to the strategic Air Force assets.
The attack, a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside the disputed region of Kashmir, threatens to undermine a tentative thaw in relations with Pakistan.
Singh, who was flanked by Air officer commanding, Air commodore J S Damoon and Brigadier Anupinder Singh, said “the entire operation will continue till all the personnel, assets, structure are physically combed”. India routinely accuses Islamist groups in Pakistan of fomenting terror across the border.
The Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan scheduled for later this month seems in critical jeopardy with robust indications that the federal government might name off the engagement if proof emerges that Pakistan’s state actors have been complicit within the assault on Pathankot’s air base.
Advertisement
The attack comes a week after Modi met with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during an unannounced stopover in Lahore on his way back from Kabul.
