Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday briefed by senior defence and security officers about the terrorist attack, carried out by suspected Pakistani terrorists last week, on the Pathankot IAF base.
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Mr Sharif assured Secretary Kerry that Pakistan would swiftly and transparently investigate the matter and “bring out the truth”. “Pakistan is eliminating terrorism from its soil and will not allow any one to use Pakistani soil to conduct terror operations overseas”.
“Kerry extended full support to the Prime Minister to find out the truth in the Pathankot terror incident”, a statement issued by the Pakistan Prime Minister’s Office said.
Sources in the government informed that both leaders also had a word on recent escalation in tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia and both of them were of the view that the issue should be resolved through negotiations.
The meeting between Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry is otherwise scheduled to be held in Islamabad next week.
The second round may take place towards the end of the month if the four nations agreed on the minimum agenda, the official said. They have said publicly that they are not going to discriminate between terrorist groups.
Attempts to restart talks between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since becoming separate countries in 1947, have often been derailed by similar past attacks.
To the question that how much the evidence provided by India was credible, the adviser said it would be determined after the investigation.
The report in the Dawn said the official’s comments “provided an insight into Pakistan’s planned response to India”.
While refusing to get into a debate on the timeframe for Pakistan to complete the investigation into the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air base, he stressed that the U.S. would “like them to be done as quick as possible and transparently discussed when it’s complete”.
“The NSA lauded the most effective and commendable Punjab response to a most hard challenge thrown at the country by terrorists at Pathankot”, a Punjab government spokesman, quoting Doval’s conversation with Badal, said here.
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Besides taking stock of the ground situation of the Pathankot airbase during his 90-minute-long stay, the PM also took detailed briefing from Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha and NSG officials about the attack and counter-offensive launched by the security forces.
