Fate of the talks between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India scheduled for January 15 are in danger of being scrapped and a decision in this regard would be taken after the operation to clear Indian Air Force (IAF) is completed, senior sources in Indian government said.
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Terrorists believed to be from Pakistan sneaked into the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot on Saturday and killed seven security personnel.
“Till now, we have eliminated four terrorists and operation to eliminate two more terrorists, possibly is in the final stage of conduct”, Inspector General NSG Maj General Dushant Singh told a press conference here.
It is unclear whether any surviving attackers remain inside the base but troops continued to scour the area.
A building which the two militants were holed up were pulled down by security forces, said local TV channel NDTV. Officials have said no military hardware has been damaged in the fighting.
The sources said the investigators will also try and ascertain the conspiracy that was hatched on Pakistani soil by the terrorists and if possible find out the state and non-state actors in that country. Combing operations to secure the Indian air force base where a group of militants started an attack before da…
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Seven soldiers including a lieutenant-colonel in the elite National Security Guards commando unit were killed and 20 were injured in the assault at the base.
Defense officials have said authorities had been alerted about a potential attack in the area on Friday, and that aerial surveillance at the base spotted the gunmen as they entered the compound, leading to criticism of the handling of the situation.
The government official, who requested anonymity, said it could take another 48 hours for the base to be secured, and by then the government hoped to have more information about the attackers and what links they may have to Pakistan, if any. “Many media reports have such doubts…”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here replying to a question on the attack.
Police have said the gunmen had earlier hijacked a police officer’s auto and driven it to the base.
Two months after the World Economic Forum in Davos, Modi and Sharif were expected to meet yet again on the sidelines of the nuclear summit in Washington.
It comes a week after Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister in 12 years to visit Pakistan.
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The NDA government has, however, kept the focus on terrorism, they said, citing the primacy given to it by Modi in his talks across the world as well in the engagement with Pakistan.
