Bilkulonline.com, New Delhi, Jan 5: Dialling Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Sri Lanka, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday promised “prompt and decisive action” against terrorist groups linked to the attack on the air base at Pathankot in Punjab.
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Defence minister Manohar Parrikar admitted on Tuesday that “security lapses” led to the terrorist attack on the IAF base here that left seven security personnel and six terrorists dead.
Addressing reporters at the Pathankot air base near the border with Pakistan, Parrikar said Indian security forces “have done an excellent job of containing these highly motivated terrorists” on a suicide mission.
“We had prior information of it, this was the first success of the government’s intelligence department”, the official said.
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”. “What we want and what we continue to say we want and will continue to work for is increased cooperation, communication, coordination, increased information-sharing and increased efforts against what we all believe is a shared challenge in the region”, Kirby said.
“I would note that the Government of Pakistan also publicly and privately condemned this recent attack on the Indian airbase”. The National Security Guard (NSG), which lead the operation at the base, merely said it was a Fidayeen attack – which means the attackers knew they were going to their death. After that, the NSAs (of India and Pakistan) met in Bangkok.
A senior External Affairs Ministry official said that a powerful explosion, which shook a double-storeyed building at the air base on Monday morning, indicated that two terrorists might have been hiding in Pathankot.
Meanwhile, spokesperson to the Pakistan PM, Musadik Malik said Pakistan has always supported peace in the region and has been fighting a war against terrorism in order to wipe it out from the region.
The attackers had reportedly made several calls to Pakistan, some of them brief and some long.
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The attack sparked what CNN’s partner in India, CNN-IBN, described as a 15-hour gunfight at the base, which the network said houses fighter jets and attack helicopters.
