Gunmen Continue Indian Air Base Battle

He added that the combing operation is taking time since the circumference of the air base is 24 kilometres.

4 pm: Security agencies told PTI that the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base may have entered the premises before an alert was sounded. Kirby said the United States is encouraged by the government of Pakistan condemning this attack, and the statement that they’ve made about not discriminating among groups.

The attack sparked what CNN’s partner in India, CNN-IBN, described as a 15-hour gunfight at the base, which the network said houses fighter jets and attack helicopters. Officials said six militants have been killed and that Indian forces are carefully combing the premises for booby-traps.

The identity of the attackers is not clear.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Sunday, in the wake of the terror attack at the Indian Air Force base near Pathankot in Punjab.

Jaitley said the security forces were able to confine the terrorists to the place where they intruded and kept at a “reasonable distance” from where the assets were located.

Search operation was also being conducting in nearby villages to ensure that no more terrorists were hiding anywhere. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

10 am: Remains of NSG Lt Col taken to Bengaluru, where people pay tribute to him.

But gunfire could still be heard at the base on the third day of operations. In history, such terrorist attacks have happened before, whenever the two countries were trying to improve their relationship.

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, for his part, said he had directed the railway police to remain vigilant.

“We are sure that still there are at least two more terrorists as firing have come from two different places”.

The three day-long struggle came to a halt after the nation’s security personnel killed five of the suspected militants who executed the attacks.

However, India was mulling cancelling or delaying the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan following the attack, sources said. “We recognise there’s more everybody can do, not just Pakistan but every nation can do because it is a shared challenge and it’s a challenge, as you well know, that doesn’t necessarily observe borders and boundaries”.

As per the statement, Spokesperson Syed Sadaqat Hussain paid rich tributes to the militants killed in Pathankot Air Base attack. However, local TV channel CNN-IBN is quoting unnamed senior official sources, as saying that India will provide Pakistan with evidence that the Jaish-e-Mohanmmed outfit was behind the attack on the Indian airbase in Pathankot near the Pakistani border.