Indian soldiers stand guard outside an airbase in Pathankot, India, Monday, Jan. 4, 2016.
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Pakistan should take “reciprocal steps” if it is proved that Pakistanis were involved in the terror attack on the IAF base in Punjab, a leading newspaper said on Monday. “The combing and search operations still continue”.
One group of four terrorists was killed on the first day of the operations itself.
Al Jazeera’s Faiz Jamil, reporting from New Delhi, said that “some of the gunmen may have been hiding in some of the bunkers or the forested areas surrounding the large military base” before launching the attack.
The operation against militants holed up at Pathankot air base entered the third day today after explosions and firing continued intermittently overnight.
Separately, late on Sunday, the Indian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif came under attack.
Seven military personnel have been martyred and 20 injured in the assault on the sprawling compound that lies 25 km from the border with Pakistan.
Police said the militants, who were disguised as soldiers, had hijacked a police vehicle and driven it to the base before dawn on Saturday.
“A total of six terrorists have been killed, but every inch of the air base has to be secured before we call off the operation”, said a government official in New Delhi. Home Minister Rajnath Singh even tweeted Saturday night to congratulate the troops for successfully killing all of the gunmen.
Authorities have vowed to end the siege on Monday and kill the attackers.
Indian security officials have alleged that the Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed is responsible for the attack, and is being backed by Pakistan.
The process of resumption of talks was set in motion after a meeting between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan in Paris on November 30 on the sidelines of Climate Change Conference.
Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj held a meeting with a group of diplomats to form a strategy on Pakistan.
Sources said that immediately after the alarm was sounded, security at all vital installations, including the Pathankot air base, was enhanced to the highest level to make it hard for the terrorists to mount an attack.
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“Pakistan is in touch with Indian government and is committed to effectively counter and eradicate terrorism”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan Foreign office said in a statement as per media reports. In the past, when it was in opposition, Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party was a vocal critic of engagement with Pakistan.
