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Mounting pressure: USA ‘expects’ Pakistan to act against attackers

The United States has said it “expects” Pakistan, which has itself suffered from terrorism, to act against perpetrators of a deadly attack on an Indian air force base in Pathankot.

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The clearance operation at the Pathankot Air Force base ended on Tuesday, four days after terrorists stormed the station, killing six Indian security officers.

Kirby said the U.S. is encouraged by the government of Pakistan condemning this attack, and the statement that they have made about not discriminating among groups.

Further hitting out at the government, the ruling alliance partner said, “The Prime Minister was in Lahore only last week as a guest of his counterpart Nawaz Sharif”.

According to official sources, Doval and Janjua talked about various information and leads, like the Pakistani numbers which the attackers had called and their intercepts with India asserting that an effective action on part of Pakistan was important. He pointed out to the Indian prime minister that whenever a serious effort for bringing peace between the two countries was underway, terrorists tried to derail the process.

He said: “There are indications from the recovered weapons that the terrorists came from Pakistan”.

NIA chief Sharad Kumar has disclosed that terrorists who attacked IAF base at Pathankot were being guided by their handlers in Pakistan.

No gunfire was heard early Tuesday at the air base where troops continued the search for a possible sixth gunman involved in the attack.

Reports in India have suggested that the Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammad group carried out the attack.

“It (the attack) threatened to halt the improvement in Pak(istan)-India ties that we have seen over the past weeks – mainly as a result of diplomacy behind closed doors”, the editorial said.

The US official noted that terrorism was a “shared challenge” that “all countries in the region” must fight together.

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The attack – a rare targeting of an Indian military installation outside disputed Kashmir – threatens to undermine improving relations with Pakistan.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at a press conference in Pathankot yesterday. Pic  PTI