Pathankot air base attack: Gunfight hours after ‘all gunmen neutralised’

Senior security officer killed in fresh fighting; two more attackers still at large

NEW DEHLI/ PATHANKOT/NEW DELHI: Indian security forces battled into Sunday evening to secure an air base near the border with Pakistan, a day after a brazen militant attack on the installation.

Gunfire continued into the evening as security forces hunted the remaining attackers in the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Pathankot, a sprawling compound that lies 25km from the border with Pakistan.



A senior officer of India’s National Security Guard (NSG) — an elite unit that specialises in counterterrorism — was killed in the fresh gunbattle, bringing the death toll from the assault to seven. Another 20 have been wounded thus far.

After a 14-hour operation to secure the air base on Saturday, Air Commodore J S Dhamoon had announced that all attackers had been ‘neutralised’. Indian leaders had already praised the armed forces for their ‘heroism’.

But that appeared premature on Sunday, as shooting broke out after midday on Sunday, sparking a renewed manhunt on the base, from which IAF MiG-21 fighter jets and attack helicopters fly.

As Indian security forces battled the remaining attackers, Lt Col Niranjan Kumar of the NSG was killed when a grenade exploded beside him. As night fell, it was unclear whether two or more militants were still at large after Saturday’s pre-dawn raid on the Pathankot air base in Punjab state. Four attackers have been confirmed killed.

“The area cannot be declared fully sanitised,” Air Marshal Anil Khosla told a news briefing in New Delhi. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters he hoped the two believed still to be at large would be ‘neutralised’ overnight. Without recovering their bodies they could not be confirmed dead. That contradicted earlier statements by home ministry and army officials who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two holdouts had been killed. The fresh fighting at the air base and public outrage generated by it has placed even more strain on efforts to revive a moribund peace process between Pakistan and India.

The pressure on the Indian government’s resolve to go ahead with talks was reflected in its move to not issue an official reaction on Sunday. In contrast, on Saturday, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had deputed one of its most senior ministers to brief reporters.

Even Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who on Saturday had pledged not to let ‘the enemies of humanity’ who attacked the base succeed, remained silent on Sunday.

The breaching of the base’s defences has also raised questions about lax security on the international border in Punjab, which is a known route for drug smugglers and is less closely guarded than the Line of Control running through disputed Kashmir state.

“The casualties were unacceptably high,” said Nitin Gokhale, a defence analyst and journalist who said intelligence on a possible attack had not been passed on in time to alert sentries at the base.

Police have said the gunmen had earlier hijacked a police officer’s car and driven it to the base. It took 12 hours for information on the hijacking to be circulated, according to news reports, allowing the attackers to keep the initiative.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2016.