Pathankot attack: Nawaz Sharif calls up PM Modi, assures action

In a statement, Modi’s office said PM Nawaz Sharif had telephoned him to discuss the attack on the Pathankot base in the northern state of Punjab near the border with Pakistan.

BJP had on Saturday indicated that if terror attacks in Pathankot are found to have been supported by the Pakistani establishment, it will adversely impact the fresh peace initiative that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken with the neighbouring country.

India has already given “specific and actionable information” to Pakistan on the involvement of militants in Pakistan in the attack, it said. According to Mr. Sharif’s spokesperson, the Pakistan Prime Minister said his government was “working on the leads and information provided by the Indian government”.

Questions are now being raised in New Delhi on how the government will react and whether the attacks will impact talks scheduled to be held between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in Islamabad later this month. But he added that the combing operation was likely to continue for days before the air base could be declared completely safe.

India has said that the ball is now in Pakistan’s court and if Sharif delivers, then the spirit that was generated after Modi’s visit to Lahore on December 25, can return.

In the first apparent claim of responsibility, the United Jehad Council, an alliance of 13 Kashmir-based rebel groups, claimed its “highway squad” stormed the base.

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.

Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said that “some elements” want to “sabotage” the Indo-Pak peace talks through terror acts but they will not succeed in their nefarious designs. The Sena also said that had the Congress been in power today, there would have been demands to strike at Pakistan and avenge the deaths of soldiers, but now nothing is being done about the incident.

“Pakistan will investigate in detail on the leads and information provided by the government of India”, Sharif was quoted by Radio Pakistan as saying.

“The challenge of terrorism calls for strengthening our resolve to a cooperative approach”, the statement said.

India and Pakistan have since agreed to start a comprehensive bilateral dialogue.