Terror in India: Gunmen mount brazen attack on Indian air base
Four gunmen, three guards killed in 14-hour-long assault
Indian Army troops stand alert near the Pathankot air base during the attack by militants. PHOTO: AFP
NEW DELHI:
A dramatic assault on an Indian Air Force (IAF) base near the Pakistan border was finally declared over on Saturday 14 hours after gunmen struck in an apparent challenge to attempts to resurrect a moribund dialogue process between the two neighbours.
Four attackers and three guards were killed in the attack on the IAF base in Pathankot that came a week after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impromptu stopover in Lahore while flying back to India from Afghanistan to wish his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday.
Officials said the gunmen, wearing army fatigues, managed to enter the air base in the northwestern state of Punjab around 3.30am on Saturday. Once inside, they opened fire indiscriminately. They had earlier hijacked the car of the superintendent of police on the Jammu-Pathankot highway and had killed one person while throwing the other occupants out. They drove the car to the heavily guarded base.
Officials said three security personnel, including an IAF commando, were killed. Four gunmen were also shot down by the security forces. Sporadic gunfire continued into the day and helicopters flew as an operation continued to comb the base in search of any more gunmen. TV footage showed armed guards outside the base, which is located 50 kilometres from the border with Pakistan. Police stepped up vehicle checks in the area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But security officials said the gunmen, believed to be from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad militant group, entered India from Bahawalpur district in south Punjab and communicated with their handlers twice after crossing over. Indian intelligence is said to have traced four phone calls between the attackers and their handlers between 12:35am and 1:40am on Saturday. However, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it was too early to say anything, indicating New Delhi unlike the past was suspending judgment about Pakistan’s official involvement in plotting the attack.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the attackers ‘enemies of humanity’ who could not digest India’s progress. “Today, enemies of humanity who can’t see India progress tried to strike at our strategic area, a prominent airbase at Pathankot. I appreciate our armed forces and thank them for foiling our enemy’s attempt,” Modi said in Mysuru.
He assured that India’s defence forces had the strength to defeat “the evil designs of our enemy”. “Our security forces did not let them succeed ... proud of our jawans and security forces,” he added.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar went into a huddle with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and three service chiefs at South Block. But Indian ministers refrained from criticising or attacking the Pakistani establishment. Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju said India had credible information that the attackers were sponsored by some elements from across the border. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, speaking at the BJP headquarters, said the resumed dialogue with Pakistan could not be revoked due to ‘one attack’ adding “unless you talk terror, terror will not come down.”
“This process [talks] cannot be destroyed due to one attack... Pakistan is our neighbour. You cannot change your neighbour, you can change friends and therefore we must continue with the talks but talks have to be mainly on the issue of terrorism and that’s what exactly India is doing,” Javadekar said. “Pakistan will have to walk the talk on the issue of terrorism.”
The attack, however, provided fodder to the opposition Congress party which has been in the forefront of a sharp interrogation of the government on the reasons for the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. “It [the attack] is a matter of serious concern. Will the prime minister take up the issue with Pakistan now that he has recently visited Pakistan?” asked Congress leader RS Surjewala. “How does the government propose to control and check terror coming from Pakistan? These are a few issues that Prime Minister Modi needs to address,” he added.
“First in Udhampur, then in Dinanagar in Gurudaspur and now in Pathankot. These terrorists wore army fatigues, they hijacked vehicles and they consequently attacked army or other sensitive installations,” he said. Now that in winter infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir is not possible, Punjab is being targeted by terrorists, he added.
Congress leader Ahmad Patel said: “We are with the government in the fight against terrorism, we all must fight together. The Pathankot attack should be condemned outright, but that’s not enough. This, happening after a week of Modi’s meeting Nawaz Sharif, raises serious questions.”
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh said: “Those who do not wish to see peace between India and Pakistan will begin to politicise the attack and make anti-Pakistan comments in order to fuel the feud.”
Modi’s surprise trip to Lahore last week generated a lot of optimism about the revival of a peace process that had previously been derailed by militant attacks. “The moment that Modi touched down in Lahore [and probably even before], something like this was doomed to happen,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington. “At this point, there’s sufficient goodwill in India-Pakistan relations to weather this attack. Saboteurs won’t win this one,” he said.
Of late Punjab has become the new area for militant attacks, triggering worries that there might be local Indian involvement or collaboration of domestic Sikh groups with Pakistani militants. The raid resembled an assault last July by gunmen in uniform on a police post in Gurudaspur that killed nine people.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2016.
A dramatic assault on an Indian Air Force (IAF) base near the Pakistan border was finally declared over on Saturday 14 hours after gunmen struck in an apparent challenge to attempts to resurrect a moribund dialogue process between the two neighbours.
Four attackers and three guards were killed in the attack on the IAF base in Pathankot that came a week after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impromptu stopover in Lahore while flying back to India from Afghanistan to wish his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday.
Officials said the gunmen, wearing army fatigues, managed to enter the air base in the northwestern state of Punjab around 3.30am on Saturday. Once inside, they opened fire indiscriminately. They had earlier hijacked the car of the superintendent of police on the Jammu-Pathankot highway and had killed one person while throwing the other occupants out. They drove the car to the heavily guarded base.
Officials said three security personnel, including an IAF commando, were killed. Four gunmen were also shot down by the security forces. Sporadic gunfire continued into the day and helicopters flew as an operation continued to comb the base in search of any more gunmen. TV footage showed armed guards outside the base, which is located 50 kilometres from the border with Pakistan. Police stepped up vehicle checks in the area.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But security officials said the gunmen, believed to be from Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad militant group, entered India from Bahawalpur district in south Punjab and communicated with their handlers twice after crossing over. Indian intelligence is said to have traced four phone calls between the attackers and their handlers between 12:35am and 1:40am on Saturday. However, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it was too early to say anything, indicating New Delhi unlike the past was suspending judgment about Pakistan’s official involvement in plotting the attack.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the attackers ‘enemies of humanity’ who could not digest India’s progress. “Today, enemies of humanity who can’t see India progress tried to strike at our strategic area, a prominent airbase at Pathankot. I appreciate our armed forces and thank them for foiling our enemy’s attempt,” Modi said in Mysuru.
He assured that India’s defence forces had the strength to defeat “the evil designs of our enemy”. “Our security forces did not let them succeed ... proud of our jawans and security forces,” he added.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar went into a huddle with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and three service chiefs at South Block. But Indian ministers refrained from criticising or attacking the Pakistani establishment. Minister of State for Home Kiran Rijiju said India had credible information that the attackers were sponsored by some elements from across the border. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, speaking at the BJP headquarters, said the resumed dialogue with Pakistan could not be revoked due to ‘one attack’ adding “unless you talk terror, terror will not come down.”
“This process [talks] cannot be destroyed due to one attack... Pakistan is our neighbour. You cannot change your neighbour, you can change friends and therefore we must continue with the talks but talks have to be mainly on the issue of terrorism and that’s what exactly India is doing,” Javadekar said. “Pakistan will have to walk the talk on the issue of terrorism.”
The attack, however, provided fodder to the opposition Congress party which has been in the forefront of a sharp interrogation of the government on the reasons for the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan. “It [the attack] is a matter of serious concern. Will the prime minister take up the issue with Pakistan now that he has recently visited Pakistan?” asked Congress leader RS Surjewala. “How does the government propose to control and check terror coming from Pakistan? These are a few issues that Prime Minister Modi needs to address,” he added.
“First in Udhampur, then in Dinanagar in Gurudaspur and now in Pathankot. These terrorists wore army fatigues, they hijacked vehicles and they consequently attacked army or other sensitive installations,” he said. Now that in winter infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir is not possible, Punjab is being targeted by terrorists, he added.
Congress leader Ahmad Patel said: “We are with the government in the fight against terrorism, we all must fight together. The Pathankot attack should be condemned outright, but that’s not enough. This, happening after a week of Modi’s meeting Nawaz Sharif, raises serious questions.”
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh said: “Those who do not wish to see peace between India and Pakistan will begin to politicise the attack and make anti-Pakistan comments in order to fuel the feud.”
Modi’s surprise trip to Lahore last week generated a lot of optimism about the revival of a peace process that had previously been derailed by militant attacks. “The moment that Modi touched down in Lahore [and probably even before], something like this was doomed to happen,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington. “At this point, there’s sufficient goodwill in India-Pakistan relations to weather this attack. Saboteurs won’t win this one,” he said.
Of late Punjab has become the new area for militant attacks, triggering worries that there might be local Indian involvement or collaboration of domestic Sikh groups with Pakistani militants. The raid resembled an assault last July by gunmen in uniform on a police post in Gurudaspur that killed nine people.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2016.