After saying all the gunmen who attacked the Pathankot Indian Air Force (IAF) base were dead, Indian officials said at least two attackers remained, and vowed to kill them Monday to end a more than 48-hour siege. “The operation will continue till the whole air base has been cleared of any intruders”, Air Commodore JS Dhamoon, the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of the Pathankot Air Force Station told the media. “However, I would like to inform that all the assets of the air base including personnel, families have been secured and are safe”.
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Four militants and seven security personnel were killed Saturday.
Senior defence and Punjab Police officials said it was likely that the terrorists had come in two batches from the Bamiyal border outpost (BOP) of the Border Security Force (BSF).
Maj. Gen. Dushyant Singh, from India’s elite National Security Guard, told reporters Monday that search operations at the Pathankot air force base will continue until all areas have been completely secured.
Meanwhile, the joint combing operation was still underway, a police official said, adding that the NIA had taken over the probe into the terror incident.
Sources said that immediately after the alarm was sounded, security at all vital installations, including the Pathankot air base, was enhanced to the highest level to make it hard for the terrorists to mount an attack. Four other security men were also injured in the blast.
Seven security personnel, including National Security Guard Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan Kumar, lost their lives. 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.
India blame Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed militant outfit for the attack.
Officials said the attack bore the hallmarks of previous suspected assaults by Pakistan-based militant groups, underscoring the fragility of recent efforts to revive bilateral talks between the often uneasy neighbours.
The attack started before dawn on Saturday, when a group of gunmen – wearing Indian army uniforms – entered the residential quarters on the base.
The attack comes just days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on December 25, 2015, in a bid to promote peace between the two countries.
“The air base is large and we have been working all night to ensure that the base is totally in our control”, Mehta said.
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All political parties in India have condemned the attack, but there were no demands that the government call off the talks with Pakistan. “By accusing Pakistan for every attack, India neither succeeded in the past nor will it get anything in the future by its malicious propaganda to malign the Kashmir freedom struggle”, the spokesperson said.
