It was Vikas Swarup, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs, who broke the news of a telephone call around 4pm (IST) to tweet, “PM Narendra Modi received a call this afternoon from PM Nawaz Sharif regarding the terrorist attack at Pathankot airbase”.
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India has repeatedly blamed Pakistani militants for attacks on its territory, specifically in India-administered parts of the contested Kashmir region in the north. “The Pakistani Government, the Pakistani people very much understand the threat here”. Rebels in India’s portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan. If not, then analysts fear the civil-military power equation in Pakistan may worsen.
Security officials suspect the gunmen belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, the group that staged a 2001 attack on the Indian parliament which brought the two countries to the brink of war.
Parrikar visited the Pathankot Indian Air Force base in Punjab on Tuesday along with the chiefs of the army and air force.
Earlier Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said the actual operation to hunt down militants at the Pathankot base had ended with the discovery of six badly burnt bodies that carried irrefutable evidence of being Pakistani.
Briefing the media after national security meeting, Indian Finance Minister said that the operation against the terrorists involved in Pathankot airbase is still going on and nothing can be said about the identity of the terrorists as yet.
Thousands of police were scanning hotels, markets and forested areas in the city of Pathankot around the base, to ensure no more militants were hiding, said police official Manoj Kumar.
Sources in the Indian Air Force (IAF) said that every inch of the Air Force Station (AFS) was being thoroughly scanned. It includes homes and a school for the children of air force personnel.
In response to a question on the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, Mr Dujarric had told reporters that under the Vienna Convention, the responsibility to protect diplomatic missions and to protect diplomats lies with the countries where these diplomats work and where these missions work.
It is now assumed that both NSAs might also meet at the same time when the foreign secretary talks will be held.
Pakistan condemned the attack, describing it as a “terrorist incident”. “Our government is working on the leads and information provided by the Indian government”, Nawaz told Modi.
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He said barring one building where the terrorists took shelter, no other building was even damaged because the security personnel managed to corner the raiders in a corner of the sprawling base. “Shouldn’t we get a message from it that the entire establishment of Pakistan is not in support of rapprochement between two countries?”
