At least 2 gunmen still holed up at Indian air force base

 The Indian media has widely speculated that the attack was carried out by Jaish-i-Mohammed (JiM), an anti-India militant group based in the eastern Pakistani city of Bahawalpur.

But in July three gunmen said to be Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militants killed seven people including four police in an attack in the Sikh-majority state of Punjab.

It said India has urged Pakistan to arrest the terror outfit leaders.

The Indian Army’s Western Command chief Lt. Gen. K.J. Singh arrived at the Pathankot Air Force Station on Monday even as security forces were engaged in search and combing operations at the frontier air base.

The foreign secretaries of the nuclear-armed neighbors are due to meet for talks on January 15, building on a thaw in relations after a surprise visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif last month.

The council is based in Pakistan’s portion of Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between the countries and claimed in its entirety by both.

Criticising Pakistan for condemning the Pathankot attack, the editorial said Islamabad is “faking by doing so”. The editorial said that while Pakistan-India ties were necessarily about a great deal more than terrorism, “the latter is perhaps the one threat that can derail the relationship yet again”.

The statement from Pakistan comes even as officials in Delhi said the government was “mulling” its options over whether to go ahead with Foreign Secretary-level talks next week. “PM Modi is trying to unite the world, but time has now come for him to concentrate on India”, it said. It is also very close to India’s border with Pakistan.

Officials have given conflicting accounts on whether the attackers were still active on the base since Home Minister Rajnath Singh declared on Saturday evening that they had been “neutralised”. However, it was not clear whether all the intruders who attacked the base have been eliminated.

Sources said the death of the sixth militant was not confirmed as his body had not been identified.

The operation stretched through the night with sounds of gunfire and explosions continuing till around 10 AM today after which they have ceased. It houses a fleet of India’s Russian-origin MiG-21 fighters and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware.