Pathankot Attack: Terrorists made calls on Pak numbers; addressed handler as ‘Ustaad’

He said that India’s policy on Pakistan was clear, as all issues were discussed in the Bangkok meeting between the national security advisers.

Reminded that after the Nov 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack in which six American were killed too, the United States had asked Pakistan to act, but to no avail, a defensive Kirby said nobody can look at the U.S. “counterterrorism record over the last decade or so and say we’re not doing anything”.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assured Prime Minister Modi that his government would take prompt and decisive action against the terrorists. He, however, confirmed that “actionable intelligence” had been provided to Pakistan to take action against those who were responsible for Pathankot terror attack. “We utterly condemn the terrorist attacks on the Indian air force base in Pathankot and on the Indian Consulate General in Mazar-e-Sharif. The immediate issue in front of us is Pakistan’s response to the attack and the actionable intelligence provided to it”, Swarup claimed.

The News International reported that the assault by gunmen came a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an unscheduled visit to his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in an effort to revive bilateral talks.

Punjab’s border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot remained on high alert and security forces conducted extensive search operations for the second day on Thursday in the wake of suspicion that some terrorists had sneaked in to carry out an attack.

Earlier reports said India wanted the NSAs of the two countries to meet before foreign secretary-level talks are held.

The evidence alleging JeM’s involvement in the recent attack may put a question mark on scheduled Foreign Secretary-level talk between India and Pakistan in Islamabad on January 15.

“India expects to complete initial probe into the incident before the meeting and its position at the talks would depend a lot on what comes out of the investigation”, the paper said.

The deadly militant attack on the Indian air base killed seven Indian military personnel and wounded 22.

The Nation quoted an official as saying that the leads provided by India were handed over to IB chief Aftab Sultan for further action. Pakistan is following up the leads, the official said, and hopes that the talks would not be canceled while it explores them. The participants also discussed the option of arranging a meeting of NSAs.