Disguised militants storm air base in India; 3 troops killed
MUMBAI, India — Militants wearing army uniforms stormed an air force base in northern India early Saturday, setting off a daylong battle that left five assailants and three soldiers dead and cast serious doubt over Indian-Pakistani talks due to begin this month.
Four attackers were killed by Indian forces, and a fifth was gunned down more than 12 hours after the attack began around 3:30 a.m. at the air base in Pathankot, some 260 miles north of New Delhi.
Indian officials said they had “credible information” that the attack was carried out by militants from Pakistan and described it as an attempt to derail Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to engage his rival neighbor in peace talks. Modi made a surprise visit to Pakistan on Christmas Day to build momentum for a planned meeting this month between the countries’ top diplomats.
Previous steps toward talks have also been met with violence, leading Indian officials and analysts to argue that some elements inside Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence agencies are empowering militant groups in a bid to scuttle dialogue.
“That was quick,” Omar Abdullah, former chief minister of the Indian border state Jammu and Kashmir, tweeted after the attack. “Here’s the first major challenge to the PM Modi’s bold Pakistan gambit.”
Pakistan denied any role in the violence. Following Saturday’s attack, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the “terrorist incident.”
“We extend heartfelt condolences to the government and people of India,” the statement read.
This was the second attack in seven months in the border state of Punjab that Indian authorities have blamed on Pakistanbased extremists. The previous one, in which four policemen and three civilians were killed, followed a meeting between Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of a summit in Ufa, Russia, that helped pave the way for a resumption of long-delayed comprehensive peace talks.
Saturday’s attack “follows a similar pattern,” said Nitin Gokhale, an Indian national security analyst. “Every peace move — even if symbolic — is followed by an audacious attack.
“The message is that a section of the Pakistani army, egged on by the ISI, will not give up its antiIndia campaign,” Gokhale said, referring to InterServices Intelligence, Pakistan’s premier spy agency.
Indian security officials, speaking to media, said the suspected attackers hijacked the car of a senior police official outside Pathankot after midnight Saturday. According to Indian accounts, the assailants used the official’s cellphone to place a call to Pakistan that was intercepted by Indian intelligence, which issued an alert.
Indian officials said that, due to the alert, security forces responded immedi- ately after the militants entered the air base, about 30 miles from the Pakistani border. The attackers were contained within an administrative block of the base and were not able to penetrate a secure area where fighter jets and Mi-35 attack helicopters are housed, officials said.
The raid was blamed on militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was partly responsible for a 2001 assault on the Parliament building in New Delhi that left 14 people dead, including five attackers.
India accuses Pakistan’s security establishment of supporting groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, which Pakistan denies.
The fate of the talks between the national security advisers, tentatively set for mid-January, was not immediately clear. The meeting is seen as significant in part because of the appointment of a retired general, Nasser Khan Janjua, as Pakistan’s new national security adviser, a sign that the Pakistani army was taking control of — and tacitly endorsed — the peace process.
Special correspondents Parth M.N. in Mumbai and Aoun Sahi in Islamabad contributed.