Meanwhile, India is awaiting Pakistan’s response on the information provided with regard to the Pathankot attack.
Advertisement
Modi’s visit follows criticism from the opposition Congress party of the apparent security lapse that allowed the militants to infiltrate the strategically important base.
The combing operation began after the six Pakistani terrorists, believed to belong to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, were gunned down in a four-day gunfight. The media were kept away from the air base.
India had linked the overseas secretary degree talks to Pakistan’s motion towards the militants.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup told journalists here on Thursday that Mr. Sharif had rung up Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and promised him that his government would take prompt and decisive action against the terrorists involved.
A BSF constable was on Saturday arrested in Sri Ganganagar district of Rajasthan for allegedly smuggling of drugs and weapons in Mohali near the India-Pakistan border.
Pakistan’s prime minister and army chief pledged on Friday to cooperate fully with India on investigations into an attack on an Indian air base last week as the fate of scheduled talks between the nuclear-armed neighbors remains uncertain.
India has said it has handed over specific and actionable information regarding Pathankot attack to Pakistan. Strict security arrangements had been made for the Prime Minister’s visit. “They are our pride”, he tweeted.
The group has been implicated in an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, as well as in the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl, an American journalist in Karachi.
As Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assures Indian leadership about his government’ sincerity to pursue the lead provided by India, security agencies are trying to collect as much evidence about the attackers as possible. Ammunition and other equipment recovered from them after they were killed was made in Pakistan.
Amid Indian intelligence reports that groups and people within Pakistan planned and executed the strike on the Pathankot airbase, a senior State Department official said Pakistan should not come out with lame excuses to shield them as has been the case with the Mumbai terrorist attack.
Aziz told the house that the foreign secretaries of both the countries would discuss modalities of comprehensive bilateral dialogue and its timeframe during the meeting in Islamabad.
Advertisement
Insisting that talks with Pakistan must go on, Prafulla Ketkar, editor of RSS inspired weekly Organiser, Saturday said talks should however address terrorism.
