He said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif telephoned his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and they agreed that a cordial relationship was the most appropriate response to the terrorists.
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“So this is a shared challenge that we all face in the region and we in the United States want everybody to treat it as a shared challenge”, Kirby said, adding that the USA has strongly condemned the terrorist attack on the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in Punjab’s Pathankot”.
Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif said his nation would investigate the leads and information provided by India.
India’s defense minister said Tuesday a total of six militants have been killed after an attack on an airbase in northern India, and that the multi-day effort to secure the site was ongoing.
Indian security forces say they have killed five attackers, the fifth on Monday, and believe one remains on Pathankot air force base’s sprawling premises.
“Unfortunately, India’s neighbour Pakistan has provided safe haven to terrorists for years from shielding Osama bin Laden to backing covert terrorist operations around the world”, he said. “Specific and actionable information in this regard has been provided to Pakistan”.
The Pakistan Government has said that it is in line with its commitment to New Delhi to effectively counter and eradicate terrorism.
The attack – a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside disputed Kashmir – threatens to undermine improving relations with Pakistan.
Alliance spokesman Syed Sadaqat Hussain issued a statement to Current News Service, based in the Indian portion of Kashmir, saying the attack carried a message for India that no security establishment was out of the militants’ reach.
An element of uncertainty crept in on Monday over next week’s Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan amid indications that these may be deferred in the wake of the Pathankot terror attack on Saturday.
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India has long accused Pakistan’s military of sponsoring terrorist groups that conduct cross-border attacks. The warning came after the gunmen kidnapped an off-duty policeman near the base two days before the attack began, apparently to steal his vehicle. Praveen Swami, a veteran national security correspondent at the Indian Express newspaper, said in an interview that the operation pointed to “poor training of security personnel”.
