Indian troops still fighting gunmen nearly 2 days after start of attack

PATHANKOT, India – Indian troops were still battling at least two gunmen Sunday evening at an air force base near the country’s border with Pakistan, more than 36 hours after the compound came under attack, a top government official said. At least seven troops and four gunmen have been killed in the fighting so far.

The two suspected militants were discovered shortly after noon Sunday and hours later appeared to have been cornered, Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi told reporters, adding that he expected the gunmen to be “neutralized” soon.

The attack on the Pathankot air force base started before dawn Saturday and is seen as an attempt to undo recent improvements in the relationship between archrivals India and Pakistan.

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Mehrishi said that an alert about a terror attack in Pathankot was sounded on Friday afternoon, and that aerial surveillance at the base spotted the suspected militants as they entered the compound. He said they were quickly engaged by Indian troops and “were unable to move toward their likely intended target of the technical area,” where the base’s aircraft and military equipment are kept.

Since Saturday morning, the base has been swarming with air force commandos, troops from India’s elite National Security Guard and local police.

The number of troops killed in the attack rose to seven on Sunday, with four succumbing to their injuries overnight and an elite commando killed in a morning blast that occurred while he was handling explosives, officials said.

The attack at one of India’s major air force bases started a few hours before dawn Saturday when a group of militants entered the area of the base where the living quarters are located, the Defence Ministry has said. The first gunbattle with the militants lasted about 14 hours, after which the air force said it had begun operations to secure the base.

Mehrishi said that troops were not certain of the presence of additional gunmen until they were discovered around noon Sunday.

He said the two men were cornered in a wooded area of the base by the evening.

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The violence comes soon after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise Dec. 25 visit to archrival Pakistan, where he met with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif.

It was the first visit to Pakistan in 12 years by an Indian prime minister and marked a significant thaw in the mostly tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The two leaders also held an unscheduled meeting at the Paris climate change talks last month.

The sprawling Pathankot air force base is spread over several kilometres (miles), including some forested sections. It houses a fleet of India’s Russian-origin MiG-21 fighters and Mi-25 and Mi-35 attack helicopters, along with other military hardware.

The Defence Ministry said no aircraft or military equipment has been damaged in the fighting.

The base is on the highway that connects India’s insurgency-plagued Jammu and Kashmir state with the rest of the country. It’s also very close to India’s border with Pakistan.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but is claimed in its entirety by both. Rebels in India’s portion of Kashmir have been fighting since 1989 for independence or merger with Pakistan.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents, a charge Islamabad denies, and the attack at the base was seen as a possible attempt to unravel recent progress in the relationship between the two nations.

Ahead of Modi’s visit to Pakistan, the national security advisers of both countries had met in Thailand. The foreign secretaries of both nations are scheduled to meet in Islamabad later this month.

The responses to the weekend attack from both countries have been muted so far, with neither New Delhi nor Islamabad giving any indication that the planned talks are under any threat.

In Pakistan, Sharif’s foreign affairs adviser, Sartaj Aziz, said in a radio interview Saturday that Pakistan wants to consolidate its improved relations with India. Pakistan’s foreign ministry condemned the attack.

The reaction in India has also been quiet so far. While all political parties condemned the attack, there was no immediate demand that the government call off talks with Pakistan. In the past, when it was in opposition, Modi’s own right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party has been the most vocal critic of engagement with Pakistan, saying that talks and terror should not go together.

But with Modi’s own diplomatic engagement with Islamabad at stake, the BJP has given no indication yet that the planned talks have been threatened by the attack.

Police have said they’re investigating whether the gunmen came from the Indian portion of Kashmir, where rebels routinely stage attacks, or from Pakistan.

The death of seven Indian troops came despite the fact that the Defence Ministry said that there had been intelligence reports about a likely terror attack on military installations in Pathankot, and that the air force had been prepared to thwart any attackers.

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Associated Press writer Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report.