India Urges Pakistan To Take ‘Firm’ Action After Base Attack

Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif today called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi and promised “prompt and decisive action” against the terrorists behind the Pathankot attack as the Indian leader pressed for immediate steps on “specific and actionable” information provided to them.

“Through timely and prompt action by all agencies, the likely plan of the terrorists to destroy valuable assets of the Air Force has been foiled”, the Indian Defense Ministry had said in a statement at the time.

The Indian army and police launched a search operation Wednesday near Pathankot where a weekend attack on an air force base left seven soldiers dead, after villagers complained about two suspicious men in the area. I would note that the government of Pakistan, also publicly and privately condemned this recent attack on the Indian air base.

Will Pakistan share details of the terrorists, whose links have been traced back to the country?

Air force spokeswoman Rochelle D’Silva said on Tuesday “there has been no firing since Monday night at the base” near the border with Pakistan. “The challenge of terrorism calls for strengthening our resolve to a cooperative approach”, he added.

In an effort to break the deadlock, Modi met Sharif in the Pakistani city of Lahore last month and agreed to accelerate peace talks, starting with a meeting between foreign secretaries this month.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, the Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that hopefully operation against the IAF base attackers will be completed tomorrow, and after that media will be provided full information about the operation.

The NIA had yesterday said that it expects cooperation from Islamabad for tracing the perpetrators of the Pathankot attack, saying it was clear that the terrorists were from Pakistan on the basis of the calls they made.

Officially, India has not yet pointed finger at Pakistan.

The government of Pakistan has said publicly and privately that it is not going to discriminate among terrorist groups as part of its counter-terrorism operation, the United States official said.

The dawn raid on the base triggered a 14-hour gunbattle on Saturday, with fighting continuing Sunday.