Pathankot terror attack: Parrikar admits to ‘some gaps’, indicates Pak link

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday called Narendra Modi in the aftermath of Pathankot Air Force base attack by six suspected Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists.

Tuesday marks the fourth day of the operation at Pathankot airbase, about 430 km north of Indian capital city of New Delhi.

Six terrorists have been neutralised so far in the combing operation.

“Combing operations are (still) going on”, he said. “They had high quality explosives”.

He said the terrorists had AK-47 rifles, pistols, Swiss knives, commando knives besides 40-50 kg of bullets.

He said the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which will probe the attack, would conduct DNA tests on the remains of the two to establish their identities conclusively.

“What the early intelligence proves to us is that if the government in Pakistan wants to find the perpetrators of the attack, it will be quite easy to pin-point the location from where the terrorists came”, a former security official, who asked not to be named, said, “While such evidence has been available in past attacks as well, seldom have we seen such close coordination between the national security advisors after the attacks”.

Parrikar told the media after visiting the base that combing operations were still going on but “this is only for safety purposes” and that no more terrorists were believed hidden in the Indian Air Force complex. Parikkar said the operation was done without compromising any asset.

The day before the assault, a police officer returning from a temple was abducted by a group of heavily armed men speaking Urdu, among other languages, he said on Tuesday.

Just when the Indian and Pakistani officials were preparing for the resumption of dialogue for the first time in years on January 14-15, the terrorists pushed the subcontinent in another spell of gloomy uncertainty.

Parrikar said that he was anxious as to how the terrorists had managed to come inside the base which has a perimeter of 24.7 kms and located in an area of about 2,000 acres.

He also said that the infrastructure in the compound was also intact, with only one two-storeyed building, where the last two terrorists were holed out, suffering some damage in the efforts to flush them out.

Parrikar said except the Garud commando, no one else was killed in direct operation.

Four militants and seven security personnel were killed Saturday. “One of them Jagdish Chandra virtually grappled with the terrorist before killing him”, he said hailing them as martyrs who made their supreme sacrifice.